Sony has suffered legal blow this week after losing its battle to prevent third-party add-ons being sold for PlayStation games.
The format holder’s case was against the UK-based software company Datel, who sold cheats via Action Replay. The case gives an example for MotorStorm, in which Datel sold infinite boosts for the racing game. Sony argued that Datel was infringing on EU copyright law for selling the add-ons, noting they used its source code.
The court issued the following statement on the matter:
The Directive on the legal protection of computer programs does not allow the holder of that protection to prohibit the marketing by a third party of software which merely changes variables transferred temporarily to working memory. The directive protects only the intellectual creation as it is reflected in the text of the computer program’s source code and object code.
In addition, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar argued in a non-binding opinion prepared for the case earlier in the month that it wasn’t illegal to use copyrighted work in a way that makes it alternate from the original intention of the creator.
The author of a detective novel cannot prevent the reader from skipping to the end of the novel to find out who the killer is, even if that would spoil the pleasure of reading and ruin the author’s efforts to maintain suspense.
[Source – EuroNews]