Digital Rights Network

On July 19th another Sony mod-chipping case was decided by the UK courts, on the basis of the UK implementation of the European Copyright Directive. The defendant was sued for distributing devices which circumvented copyright protection systems, and lost.

The facts of this case were basically the same as an earlier Sony mod-chipping case in the UK, and similar to a case which took place in Australia. Similar defences about backups and imports failed.

• BBC story about the case
• analysis by Martin Keegan of earlier UK and Australian mod-chipping cases (the Australian decision was reversed on appeal).
• analysis by Norton Rose of the new mod-chipping case.
• Text of the judgment (2004-07-19)