Superpowers, turbo drive or a longer life: computer gamers can use cheat programs to get around restrictions. The ECJ has now decided a dispute that has been going on for years.
In the dispute over cheating software for game consoles, Playstation manufacturer Sony suffered a defeat at Europe’s highest court. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in Luxembourg that so-called cheat software does not fundamentally violate copyright law as long as it only temporarily changes data in the RAM of a console.
The background is a legal dispute that has been going on in German courts for years. In this specific case it is about a racing game for a mobile game console (Playstation Portable) that is no longer produced.
Thanks to the additional functions provided by cheat software, players were able, for example, to use the “Turbo” without restrictions or to select drivers from the start who should actually only be available once they have a higher score. The Playstation manufacturer Sony therefore demanded damages from the developers and sellers of the cheat software due to copyright infringement.
Judges in Luxembourg follow German courts
Legally, one of the questions was whether the game had been “reworked” – that would be prohibited under copyright law. The Hamburg Higher Regional Court dismissed the Sony lawsuit, and the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) referred the case to the ECJ. The judges in Luxembourg largely followed the German courts and have now thrown a spanner in the works for Sony: As long as the changed data is not intended to copy the program, copyright is not violated here.
The BGH must now decide on the specific case and take into account the legal opinion of the ECJ.
Source: Stern
