playstation in australia

Playstation modification chips (aka mod chips) were at the heart of a federal case in Australia. Australia has a law similar to the United State's Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), which can impose criminal charges for distributing software or hardware, or both, that circumvents techology used for copyright protection:

Mod chips are add-ons that typically have to be soldered to a game console's main circuit board. Properly installed, they defeat copy protection measures built into the consoles, allowing users to play games originally sent to different geographic markets, backup copies and bootleg discs. Hackers have also seized on mod chips for Microsoft's Xbox as a way to run homemade software on the console.

The Court ruled that the technology that the modification chips circumvented was not a "technological protection measure" under the Australian law because "it also prevents legal activity, including the playback of imported games and personal backup copies of games." Note that the Australian ruling has no impact upon US courts, and is no indication of how a ruling might go under the DMCA.