We now have some authoritative clarification about the legal status of modchips in the EU for the first time. As longstanding readers of this blog will know, I’ve been writing about modchips for some time. Here’s a quick recap of the latest position. What are modchips? Essentially, a modchip is a technology which permits you to circumvent restrictions … Continue reading Modchips now legal in the EU (as long as they’re not naughty)
Are modchips ‘legal’ in the EU? If so, what exactly is their legal status? One would have thought that this question would have been answered long ago but, as I’ve written about previously (see here, here and here for example) there have been setbacks and uncertainties along the way as console manufacturers take action against … Continue reading More on modchips: are they legal in the EU?
Sony is bringing a potentially landmark lawsuit against a PS3 modchip seller over the legality of modchips in Australia. Most recently, Sony secured a temporary injunction against the seller, Ozmodchips.com, banning them from selling any modchips while the lawsuit proceeds. In this guest post, Melchor Raval comments on the lawsuit and what it could mean … Continue reading Sony brings landmark modchips lawsuit in Australia
GamePolitics reports that the Australian Federal Court “has ordered RSJ IT Solutions, operators of the website GadgetGear, to stop selling R4 mod chips for the Nintendo DS and to pay Nintendo $520,000 AU in damages“. You might fairly assume from that headline that modchips are illegal in Australia. Not so. When we previously discussed the … Continue reading Nintendo ‘wins’ Australian modchip lawsuit, but are modchips actually illegal Down Under?
[This article was first posted on Gamaustra here] This article is about modchips: is their sale/use illegal or not? We look at three recent cases in England, Spain and France – which show an interesting divergence of European opinion as to the legality of modchips: not every country thinks that modchips are a bad thing. … Continue reading Are modchips illegal?
What happens when you decide that you no longer want an e-book, film, tv episode, music track or video game which you bought and downloaded? What happens if you decide you want to give it to a friend, relative or just someone who wants to buy it from you? We’re in the middle of trying … Continue reading Digital resale rights in the EU: the state of play
Last week news emerged that a group of hackers, led by one George Hotz, have jailbroken the PS3 – in other words, they had successfully circumvented the security measures put in place by Sony to prevent users from running whatever programs they like on the PS3. This has caused shockwaves to say the least, particularly … Continue reading Hacker jailbreaks PS3, pwned by Sony
A US appeal court has upheld the illegality of WoW Glider, a high-profile and profitable bot for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (hat-tip to Nic Suzor). The case is important both for its implications for bot use generally in MMOs as well as for a number of other legal points for games companies which come out … Continue reading Thoughts on the WoW Glider appeal
Jagex, developer of the popular browser MMO, has suffered setbacks in its ongoing lawsuit against Impulse Software, the maker of a bot for Runescape called the “iBot”. This follows attempts in 2009 by Runescape to take legal action against a gang of UK phishers. First, a quick summary Impulse’s bot (like most bots) allows players … Continue reading Setback for Jagex in Runescape lawsuit
It seems that Nintendo is on a mission to gun down modchip sellers at the moment. I posted in May 2010 that Nintendo was suing New York-based modchip seller NXP Games, Inc. The 1709 Blog has just reported that Nintendo has successfully just sued another modchip seller in Holland. And, last week, Nintendo won a … Continue reading Nintendo v Playables – the latest modchip case considered