Court of Appeal clarifies video games copyright

A Hereford man has lost his appeal in the Court of Appeal against a conviction for selling illegal computer modification chips.

These chips, known as ‘modchips’, enable people to override technical measures to stop people playing counterfeit or pirate video games.

The ruling given yesterday to dismiss Christopher Paul Gilham’s appeal against his earlier conviction at Hereford Crown Court (19 September 2008) is seen as pivotal in the battle against copyright and chipping criminals.

The Court of Appeal found that associated copyrights are infringed by the playing of a counterfeit game on a chipped console.

The Court judged that characters such as Britain’s own Lara Croft are included within the copyright if their image from the playing of a game can be viewed as a result of chipping a console.

It concluded: that "it is not necessary in future to show that a substantial copy of the game is made in Random Access Memory (Ram); all that needs to be shown is that some copyright work contained within the video game is substantially copied eg the image of a game character."

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (Elspa), the UK video games trade body, welcomed the court’s decision.

Michael Rawlinson, director general of Elspa, said: “Protecting intellectual property (IP) theft is an important issue for the country’s video games industry. This judgment strengthens copyright law and will be a significant step in helping us protect the industry.

“One behalf of the team in Elspa's IP Crime Unit, I would like to thank Worcestershire Trading Standards Office, which originally prosecuted Gilham, for their resolute efforts in this case.

Elspa strives to protect the interests of its members and we will continue to work hard to ensure that our members’ IP is fully safeguarded.”

It is estimated that criminal games copying and other illegal activities cost the video games industry in excess of £750m a year.

The Court of Appeal’s decision now paves the way for a number of future prosecutions by other Trading Standards Authorities that have been awaiting this result.