electronista
06/13/2008, 1:00pm, EDT
Friday, June 13thUK government declares modchips legal
The creation and sale of modchips is legal, the UK government has stated. The region's Court of Appeal has ruled in favor Neil Higgs, a vendor who had been selling thousands of modification kits for consoles like the Xbox, which in turn let gamers play pirated titles. Some 26 charges were filed against Higgs in late 2007, but as a result of today's ruling, they have all been invalidated. Higgs will also receive full compensation for his legal costs.
The appeal is said to have been granted based on an argument that while modchips are integral to the piracy of console games, any act of copyright infringement has been already committed before modchip use or installation. Pirated games are normally downloaded via the Internet, and then burned to DVD for play in a modified machine.
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Well...
... modchips don't JUST let one play pirated games. They let one play legitimately-produced foreign titles as well.