Decision of the German Federal Court of Justice in Sony versus Datel: Consequences for video games, unauthorized software, and European copyright law in the gaming industry
In a significant decision that could shape the future of the software industry, Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has ruled on the legality of cheat software under EU law. The judgment, guided by the Court of Justice of the European Union's (CJEU) interpretation, has far-reaching implications for various sectors, including modding tools, debugging software, and interoperability solutions.
The BGH's ruling provides legal certainty for cheat software developers, stating that they can develop such software as long as the code remains unmodified and no technical protection measures are circumvented. However, this judgment does not exclude the possibility that other types of cheat software may still infringe copyright.
For video gaming publishers, the judgment indicates that copyright law alone is insufficient to discourage the use of cheat software. Publishers are encouraged to implement technical protection measures, enforce End User Licence Agreements (EULAs), and consider alternative legal approaches to combat the issue.
The BGH's decision reinforces a narrow interpretation of software copyright, which could foster innovation in the accessory market. The judgment also highlights that other legal avenues, such as contract law (EULA violations), competition law (unfair hindrance), and consumer protection law (misleading advertising), remain unaffected.
Further types of cheat software potentially regarded as copyright violations under EU law include memory manipulation, exploiting program bugs (bugusing), script cheating using in-game scripting languages, use of macros and bots, manipulation and injection of game memory, kernel-level cheats and rootkits, spoofing and hardware ID manipulation, and use of virtual machines and emulation to gain unfair advantages.
However, cheat software that only alters RAM data does not infringe copyright under EU law, according to the BGH's judgment in Sony v. Datel.
For more information on video gaming, technology regulation, and recent tech-related IP cases in Germany, readers are encouraged to consult the specified resources.
