No Appeal for Sony

Sony has been refused a US Supreme Court appeal in its lawsuit against Connectix, meaning that the previous ruling made by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco will stand. The original copyright claims by Sony against Connectix were rejected by the 9th Circuit Court in May. The emulation software created by Connectix allows PC and Mac users to play PlayStation games on their computers.

The 9th Circuit Court decision argued that the reverse engineering used by Connectix to create the emulation software was legal under the "fair use doctrine," which allows software to be copied in order to learn how it works. Sony claims that it spent over US$500 million developing the PlayStation and that Connectix is now a direct competitor after spending just $150,000 to develop its emulation software. The Supreme Court's refusal to consider the case helps set an important precedent for future lawsuits against console-game emulation companies.