Sony Goes To Federal Court To Ban Sale Of PS Modchip

If you have been caught up in the South African Men’s Inter-Provincial Hockey tournament then you probably would not have heard of the PlayStation Modchip, better known as the PSJailbreak.

If you haven’t heard for any other reason catch up.

Sony Computer Entertainment Australia was granted a temporary injunction by the nation’s Federal Court to block the importation and sale of the PSjailbreak.

This means that until August 31st none of the modchip’s Australian distributors will be able to import or sell the devices. Even the stock they have will have to be left with Sony’s solicitors until the deadline passes.

Sony has from now until August 31st to convince the courts to turn the injunction into something more permanent (temporary injunctions are designed to maintain the “status quo” until a matter can be settled). If Sony are successful  it would spell out the end of legal sales of the device in Australia, but if they fail, then on the first of September it will be business as usual.

This is an interesting development, since a 2005 Supreme Court ruling determined that the sale of modchips was legal in Australia (though Nintendo was recently successful in banning the R4).

Off topic:

I hope the bokke win Australia tomorrow (Saturday) for the sake of our pride and so that we have yet another thing to laugh at them about.

[S:kotaku]