AUSTRALIANS TO BATTLE PLAYSTATION AND DVD REGIONAL CODING
Consumer watchdog authority in Australia is going to court to challenge Sony’s assertion that modifications of PlayStation regional coding violated country’s copyright law. Group, Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), said it also had begun separate investigation into possibly illegal collusion by movie studios in establishing DVD regional coding.
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ACCC said Sat. it would intervene in Federal Court copyright lawsuit filed by Sony against Eddy Stevens, Sydney-based technician who sold and installed “mod chips” that enabled PlayStation console to play games produced for sale in other regions. Mod chip also lets console play copied games, and Sony contended Steven also sold pirated software. In friend-of-court brief, ACCC said it wasn’t acting on behalf of defendant, but to challenge Sony’s claim that anticircumvention provisions of copyright law made region code modifications illegal. In recent High Court case in U.K., judge ruled that way in Sony’s favor (CED Jan 28 p2).
ACCC said regional coding created artificial trade barriers. Group is independent statutory authority created by Australian govt. to oversee trade practices and pricing. It contended that if regional coding were enforced, Australians would be forced to pay more for smaller selection of software than they could obtain from other regions overseas. Group said it wasn’t illegal in Australia to play imported disc or those copied for backup purposes, although it was illegal to import software for resale. Sony “is moving in this particular case to prevent Australian consumers from reaping the benefits of globalization,” ACCC Chmn. Allan Fels said. “ACCC will submit to the court that Sony’s interpretation of the law is legally incorrect.” He said group would argue that regional coding “does not exist to protect against copyright infringement” but rather to control software distribution and pricing. “The ACCC has long supported abolishing intellectual property import monopolies,” Fels said. Given time-zone differences, comment could not be obtained from Sony Computer Entertainment Australia by our deadline.
For PlayStation, Sony established 3 regions: N. America, Asia/Japan, and Europe -- where Australia is grouped. DVD regional coding established 6 regions around world; studios contended that was to protect theatrical windows in countries outside U.S., where home video version of movie often was available before movie screens overseas. ACCC also is challenging DVD regional coding, which prevents disc sold in one region from working in player sold in another. Group has asked local subsidiaries of studios to explain what it considers to be private arrangement to control distribution.
“We have strong reason to believe there may have been a breach of the cartel provisions of Australian laws and possibly other laws by virtue of a seeming agreement by the movie studios to divide the world up into 6 regions,” Fels said Sat.: “We haven’t got very complete explanations at this stage. If they have an agreement, that’s unlawful.” He charged that under apparent regional coding agreement, studios adjusted prices and availability differently in different regions to maximize profits. He declined to identify studios that had been asked to respond, but said Australian antitrust authorities and European Union also were investigating regional coding.