Article 3 paragraph 1 subparagraph 18 of the Copyright Act stipulated that “technological protection measures” means equipment, devices, components, technology or other technological means employed by copyright owners to effectively prohibit or restrict others from accessing or exploiting works without authorization. The function is provided in a game console that checks and recognizes whether the game disc read by the console is the copyrighted edition that was manufactured or licensed to be manufactured by the copyright owner. When a console executes a game disc, it would check whether the disc contains a copy prevention code. If the disc does not contain a copy prevention code, the console would not be able to read the disc’s software and execute it. It is the technological protection measure employed by copyright owners to prohibit or restrict others from accessing works, and it shall not, without legal authorization, be hacked, destroyed, or by any other means circumvented. And any equipment, device, component, technology or information for hacking, destroying, or circumventing the technological protection measure shall not be offered to the public for use. The object which technological protection measures prohibit from accessing or exploiting is the works, not the measures. The way to achieve the goal of piracy prevention is by prohibiting accessing or exploiting pirated work. Modchip or modchip program is to install microchips into game consoles, or to rewrite firmware of controllers. A console installed with modchip or modchip program passes over the disc’s technological protection measures process and executes the pirated game work directly, thereby hacking, destroying, or circumventing the technological protection measure employed by copyright owner.

Technological protection measure, Modchip, Modchip program , Copyright infringement, Copyright Act, Circumventing