Channeltechnology loses in court - messiah no more

Rapport från domstolsförhandlingarna, från www.ntsc-uk.com:

Judge Jacob kicked the Messiah around the courtroom like a football today (23 / 01 / 02) and in the process, made some interesting comments:
Jacob Dean made a terrific defense of the Messiah on the basis that, under the Design's Copyright's and Patent's Act 1988, the upgrade was not 'specifically' designed to circumvent the copy-protection mechanism of the PS2 console, but also dealt with defeating the region control aspect of the same protection, and thus allowed arguably legal functions such as the use of imported games. Also, with respect to the copy-protection mechanism, the use of open software development would be enabled should it be defeated, and the monopolization of the console which currently only allows software licensed by Sony to be run would be gained, an important factor for consideration. Sony's lawyers found some difficult problems, but Adrian Speck, Sony's representing barrister fought back admirably from many tight corners, resulting in the following decision:
Judge Jacob made the following ruling:
The Messiah defeated the Copy-Protection mechanism, and this part of the design SPECIFICALLY was dealing with the use of backup material as a function. The judge acknowledged that indeed it may be useful to have a backup of software as allowed under the CDPA 1988, and could possibly be cases of 'where necessary', but also the aspect of 'swapping' of backup disks between people would be uncontrollable, and damaging to Sony as nobody would obviously pay £25-45 for a game, therefore 'piracy' becomes the main factor for consideration above all other.
Therefore on this basis alone, Judge Jacob awarded the Summary Judgment to Sony
The Judge also commented on importing of games:
Judge Jacob commented that Sony licensed games for the territory that they were issued, the licensing of these games did not allow for their use in other territories, therefore whether they were imported for private and domestic use by personal purchase for instance via the internet, or purchased abroad on holiday, they were not allowed by Sony to be played outside of the licensed territory. The technical reason for the decision being based upon the fact that a game that is run without permission makes a copy of copyright material in memory, this copy is 'infringing' because it is an unauthorized copy argued Sony. Basically, this 'controversial' ruling made it illegal to play games purchased from abroad.