The backing and froing in the courts over the consumer's right to modify their playstation consoles to play games released in other countries continued today when the High Court of Australia ruled against Sony and in favour of an appeal against a Federal Court ruling that the practice was illegal under copyright protection laws.

This case has been ongoing since 2002 when the courts first ruled that the practice of using region coding in playstations was restricive and anti-competative for consumers, and that moding them was not illegal as it was aimed at allowing consumer to access games released outside Australia. This was overturned in an appeal to the Federal Court by Sony on the grounds that the mod chips were purely to allow gamers to play pirated software. Early this year an appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court up held this ruling, making the sale and installation of mod chips effectively illegal.

The High Court have taken the original position - that the controls in place restrict consumers from enjoying games sold in other regions, and that Sony (and be extension, Microsoft) use this to artificially control competition and releases - to justify their ruling.

It is expected that Sony will again appeal this ruling, but until then common sense seems to have prevailed (albeit briefly, perhaps).