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ARTICLE · 17 OCTOBER 2005

Stevens V Sony: A Set-Back for Copyright Owners

Freehills
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The High Court issued a rare judgment under the Copyright Act (Act) on 6 October 2005.

AustraliaIntellectual Property
Campbell Thompson
Campbell Thompson
Genevieve Wilkinson
Genevieve Wilkinson

The High Court issued a rare judgment under the Copyright Act (Act) on 6 October 2005. In a set-back for copyright owners, the court ruled in Stevens v Sony that the sale of 'mod chips' by Mr Stevens for use with Australian Playstation consoles did not breach the anti-circumvention provisions of the Act.

All CD-ROMs containing 'official' Playstation games include a string of encrypted data (access code) which the boot ROM in the Playstation console searches for when a CD-ROM is inserted in the disk-drive. If the boot ROM does not find the access code, the game cannot be played. The access code cannot be copied by conventional means so most illegally copied disks do not contain the code. And 'genuine' games intended for regions other than Europe and Australia have a different, and unrecognised, access code. This system (the Sony system) allows Sony to protect its exclusive licensees in different geographic markets against the twin evils of piracy and parallel importation.

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