Nintendo powerless against Europe's jailbreakers
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has rejected an appeal by Nintendo to stop an Italian company from unlocking its consoles to offer extra features.
The court said that Nintendo cannot prevent the use of hacking equipment on its consoles except in case of illegally copied video games, Times Live reported.
Nintendo cannot allow jailbreaking of its portable DS and fixed Wii consoles and uses encryption software to prevent its devices.
Italian company PC Box sells Nintendo's consoles with additional equipment allowing jailbreaking of the devices. According to Nintendo, PC Box bypass its anti-bootlegging measures by unlocking its devices.
PC Box argued that users should be allowed to access movies, videos and MP3 files from other providers when they do not breach Nintendo copyrights.
The ECJ said that Nintendo could only protect itself against "unauthorized acts of reproduction, communication, public offer or distribution" of copyrighted material.
“It could not prevent the use of hacking equipment on its consoles that has other "commercially significant" purposes,” the court ruled.
