PS2 modder defeats mighty Sony

EDDY STEVENS is the man who took on Sony and won. Sony had Eddy up in front of the beak in a Sydney court claiming that his fiddling with PS2s was illegal. But in a victory for modders everywhere - except maybe in the UK -- Stevens got off with fitting a mod chip to the console.

Stevens' modding antics allowed his customers to view mutlti-region DVDs on their PS2s and Johnson argued that his action would allow users to play legitimate copies of DVD bought abroad and use their own back-up copies which also wouldn't run on the system without his mod.

The Aussie court ruled that Sony's region coding system went beyond the provisions of Australia's Copyright Act, and therefore found that Stevens' modding actions were within the law.

A miffed Sony said it was "disappointed" with the decision and was considerinig an appeal. It pointed to a recent decision in the UK High Court in which Sony's complaint against Messiah modders "Paul Owen and Others" was upheld. Here are some of the transcripts for that case.

A spokesman for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which helped Johnson fight the lawsuit, said Australian consumers could now, "enjoy games legitimately bought overseas, as well as authorized backup copies, by legally having their consoles chipped."

Sony said, "Pah!" we imagine. µ