Nintendo has finally found support from Italy’s highest courts in a long-going legal battle against PC Box, which was selling modified hardware that circumvented piracy protection and allowed buyers to play pirated games. PC Box claimed that its hardware was not intended to be used to play pirated games, but instead designed to enable users to play MP3 files and other non-natively supported file types on their consoles. According to PC Box, Nintendo was demanding protection that far exceeded what was offered in the European Copyright Directive.
Italian courts on all levels have sided with Nintendo, claiming that the primary and most obvious use for these mod chips was to enable users to play pirated software. This was a major win for Nintendo, and because the case went to the highest courts, applying guidance from the Court of Justice of the European Union, Nintendo now has the legal backing it needs to criminally charge similar, piracy-enabling hardware sellers across the EU.
Source: Wired