This Story Posted:
February 5th

 
 

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[7:01 AM]
David 1, Goliath 0 -- Connectix Wins First Stage Of Sony Lawsuit
Connectix has won the first stage of the lawsuit from Sony that seeks to keep Connectix from shipping the Virtual Game Station. The Virtual Game Station, or VGS, is a PlayStation emulator that is exclusive to the Mac. Sony's claim is that Connectix has violated Sony's Intellectual Property in VGS and that Connectix had not done enough to prevent users from using illegally copied PlayStation games. Connectix responded to that lawsuit by releasing a new version (and incidentally actually shipping the product at the same time) that included better copy protection and better performance.

The ruling from the judge in this case refers only to the immediate request from Sony that Connectix be prevented from shipping the product for the duration of the lawsuit, and is not a total victory for Connectix. According to Connectix:

"Connectix Corporation announced that the San Francisco Federal District Court rejected Sony's request for a temporary restraining order on shipments of Connectix Virtual Game Station this afternoon."

While the ruling does not affect any other aspect of the site, it is certainly a good first step.

The Mac Observer Spin: Connectix certainly has a long road ahead of them, but the first few steps seem to have been successful. As we have said in the past, Sony's position is not necessarily as clear as it may seem. They may in fact want to keep VGS off the market for a variety of reasons (they have cited the copyright protection issue, the desire to protect the user experience, and the potential Intellectual Property violations, all of which are legitimate issues for any company selling a product or service). But is also possible that they are wanting to simply get some kind of control or input into VGS. A lawsuit settlement could include a licensing fee, a final decision on future version, development help for that user experience issue, etc.

The next step in this suit is likely to be many weeks or months down the road.

Connectix - Sony