Software developed by UK-based company Datel, which enabled infinite boosts in a racing game, has been deemed not to infringe EU copyright law, according to judges in Luxembourg. This ruling is considered significant for the gaming industry.
The European Court of Justice stated that third-party add-ons for Sony PlayStation games that provide players with additional options do not violate EU copyright law.
The court’s decision came against the backdrop of a case involving the video game giant, which is pivotal to a modding ecosystem worth hundreds of millions.
“The Directive on the legal protection of computer programs does not permit the holder of that protection to prevent a third party from marketing software that merely alters variables temporarily transferred to working memory,” the judges explained in their statement.
They further noted, “The directive protects only the intellectual creation as reflected in the text of the computer program’s source code and object code.”
Datel’s software allowed players to gain infinite boosts in the racing game MotorStorm and to control the console using a motion sensor.
The judges in Luxembourg were asked to determine whether this infringed EU copyright laws established in 2009, given that Datel’s add-ons do not modify source code but only change variables in working memory.
Sony contended that Datel’s software “latches on … like a parasite” to the PlayStation game.
However, in a non-binding opinion provided to the EU court in April, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar stated that there was nothing illegal about utilizing a copyrighted work in a manner contrary to the creator’s intentions.
He illustrated his point by comparing it to a reader skipping to the end of a detective novel to find out the killer’s identity, despite that potentially ruining the author’s suspenseful narrative.
Critics have accused Sony of overreaching in its attempts to regulate how others modify or “mod” its products, a practice that is foundational to large segments of the gaming ecosystem.
Gaming activist Ross Scott raised a rhetorical question: “In how many other industries would this be acceptable behavior?”
He likened modifying PlayStation games to adding highlights to a book or changing the wheels on a car, arguing that allowing users to cheat in a single-player game constitutes a “victimless crime.”
Scott is also the organizer of a separate EU petition aimed at preventing game companies from discontinuing support for online-only games, thereby depriving customers of their products.
This petition was initiated after Ubisoft, a French gaming company, ceased support for The Crew, an online-only racing game with approximately 12 million players.
he petition has already garnered over 370,000 signatures, although Scott acknowledges that this number is insufficient to compel action from the European Commission.
Scott warned that a broader interpretation of copyright law akin to Sony’s stance “could endanger lots of software on a wider scale.”
He noted, “If you were to eliminate every game that traces its origins to modding, it would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars,” referencing popular titles like Fortnite, which evolved from earlier games.
