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July 22, 2004
Modchips now illegal in the UK
Worst. Ruling. Ever. Sony just won a large victory against David Bell, a reseller of PS2 mod chips.
"The judge, Mr Justice Laddie, ruled that the defendant, Mr David Ball, had behaved unlawfully by selling 1,500 Messiah 2 modification chips ("mod chips") to customers in the UK. The mod chips which Mr Ball had sold had circumvented the copy protection measures on the PlayStation 2 console and allowed pirated copies of PlayStation 2 games, unauthorised copies of PlayStation 2 software (backups) and unlicensed Japanese and American PlayStation 2 software to be played.
The presiding judge then went further and confirmed that using such devices, knowing that they allow you bypass the PlayStation 2 console's technical protection measures to play pirated or copied games, is unlawful. He also concluded that advertising such devices and possessing them for a commercial purpose was also illegal.
Ok, so let me get this straight. It's illegal to sell modchips, it's illegal to adversise modchips; it's not illegal to own one, but it is illegal to use one. It turns out the PS2 you bought with your hard earned money isn't yours to tinker with after all.
Jackasses, all of them.
Posted by jb at July 22, 2004 12:01 PM
