Nintendo vs Modchips

In one of my, increasingly frequent, excursions away from competition law into the wider world of EU law I consider the impact of the the Court of Justice’s judgment in Nintendo v PC Box on the legality of videogame console ‘modchips’ under EU and copyright law.

The Laws of the Game – More on EU Law and DRM

There have been questions surrounding the legality of videogame console ‘modchips’ for many years. We may be about to see some authoritative answers for the first time as a number of cases come before the EU Courts. Two cases, stemming from legal actions instigated by Nintendo in Italy (Case C-355/12) and Germany (Case C-458/13), have been referred to the Court of Justice of the EU for preliminary references. AG Sharpston delivered her Opinion in the first of those cases, Nintendo v PC Box Srl, on 19^th September 2013.