No copyright infringement

Sony loses before ECJ in dispute over cheat software

PlayStation manufacturer Sony has conceded defeat before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in a dispute over cheat software. The highest court ruled that so-called cheat software does not fundamentally violate copyright law as long as it only temporarily changes data in the memory of a game console.

The background to this is a legal dispute that has been ongoing in German courts for years. The specific case involves a racing game for the now discontinued Playstation Portable mobile games console. Thanks to the additional functions provided by cheat software, players were able, for example, to use the "turbo" without restriction or select drivers from the outset that were only supposed to be available from a higher score.

Sony therefore demanded compensation from the developers and sellers of the cheat software for copyright infringement. One of the legal issues was whether the game had been "modified" - which would be prohibited under copyright law.

The ball is now back in the court of the German Federal Supreme Court
The Hamburg Higher Regional Court dismissed the Sony lawsuit and the German Federal Court of Justice referred the case to the ECJ. The judges in Luxembourg largely followed the German courts and have now put a stop to Sony's claim: as long as the modified data is not intended to copy the program, copyright law is not infringed here.

The German Federal Court of Justice must now decide on the specific case and take the ECJ's legal opinion into account.