EU court upholds right to sell PlayStation add-ons, in loss for Sony

Third party add-ons for Sony PlayStation games that offer players extra options don’t breach EU copyright law, the European Court of Justice has said.   

The EU’s highest court found against the video games giant in a case seen as crucial to a games modding ecosystem worth hundreds of millions. 

“The Directive on the legal protection of computer programs does not allow the holder of that protection to prohibit the marketing by a third party of software which merely changes variables transferred temporarily” to working memory, judges said in a statement.

“The directive protects only the intellectual creation as it is reflected in the text of the computer program’s source code and object code,” they added.

Datel, based in the UK, sold software that let gamers get infinite boosts in racing game MotorStorm, and control the console using a motion sensor.  

Judges in Luxembourg were asked if that infringed 2009 EU laws on game copyright – given that, in princple, Datel’s add-ons don't alter source code, but merely changed variables running in the working memory.

Sony had argued that Datel’s software “latches on ... like a parasite” to the PlayStation game.

But in a non-binding opinion prepared for the EU court in April, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar said there was nothing illegal about using a copyrighted work contrary to the creator’s intentions.  

“The author of a detective novel cannot prevent the reader from skipping to the end of the novel to find out who the killer is, even if that would spoil the pleasure of reading and ruin the author’s efforts to maintain suspense,” said Szpunar, who also found against Sony.

Some have accused Sony of overreach in seeking to control how others modify, or “mod”, its products – a practice which