chips ahoy

"It's a little like Fiat marketing its cars while banning them from being driven by non-European citizens or outside towns," the court commented. The Italian case may well have knock-on effects on other products which are available in the country, such as region-locked DVD players - and it may even embolden mod chippers in other European countries with similar laws to press legal cases over the issue.

Italian courts have ruled that chipmodding PS2s is legal in Italy. There is a case in Australia contending that it's illegal, and akin to price-fixing. Apparently in Australia, this is already true for PS2 software.

I'm all for users being able to back up their purchased games, think they should not have region-coding and I'm not happy with piracy. Telling every customer that they can only mess with their purchased items in a company-approved way is asinine. This appears to be the main message of a recent Fair Use themed game, Carabella. (via gamespot)