Information Law Possum (discontinued)

Urs Gasser and Richard Staeuber has dug out one of the earliest decisions based on the European Copyright Directive (EUCD), rendered on December 31, 2003, by a court in Bolzano (Bozen), South Tyrolia, Italy.

The judgment (no English translation available anymore), which is summarized here, essentially declared illegal the seizure of Sony Playstation consoles that use modified chips to permit uses of the console not authorized by Sony, e.g. playing disks with a different regional code.

Delivering one of the most consumer-friendly decisions in Europe in the realm of digital copyright and anti-circumvention laws, Judge Edoardo Mori made a hilarious metaphor worth keeping in mind. He wrote:

Sarebbe un po’ come se la Fiat vendesse un’auto con il divieto di uso per extracomunitari e per strade extraurbane.

which can be translated as:

This would be a bit as if Fiat* sold a car, but prohibited its use by non E.U. residents and on highways.

Indeed, GPS might make it possible to design such a technical protection measure. The legal problem in this scenario would be, however, that nothing on a Fiat car seems original enough to be copyrightable subject-matter …

*) Fiat is the Italian equivalent to a Chevy, just smaller.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 2:44 pm and is filed under DRM, Miscellaneous, copyright.