Mod-Chipping Now Legal In Italy
from the at-least-some-judges-get-it dept
While it’s still illegal in much of the world to dare to open up a box you own and adjust it (if that box happens to be a gaming console), over in Italy, they’ve realized how pointless that is and ruled that mod chipping is perfectly legal. The ruling points out that users should have the right to privately modify a device they’ve purchased, and also shows that there are plenty of legitimate reasons to do so. Ernest Miller, who writes about this news, also includes two great quotes from the decision: “Ironically, [it is Sony who first] had supported strongly the thesis that a playstation is a true computer and not just a game console, when asked by the EU to pay for custom duties imposed over the consoles (while computers aren’t subjected to this tax).” and “But if the device [Xbox], with a few hacks, may run Linux, why in the world shouldn’t a user be free of use it in all the ways he likes?” Exactly.
