A “game-changing” opinion from the CJEU’s Advocate General offers legal perspective on cheat software

The issue came to light following a long-running dispute between Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Datel Design and Development. Datel’s plugin enabled players to access a separate menu to skip difficult game sections on Sony’s consoles. This plugin interacted with the game’s variable data stored temporarily in the console’s RAM, avoiding any modification to the game’s original code.

Initially, Sony secured a favorable verdict when a German regional court found that Datel had violated copyright laws. However, this decision was later overturned. The case eventually reached the German Federal Court of Justice, which requested an interpretation from the CJEU on the extent of copyright protection in such instances.

Advocate General Szpunar’s opinion asserts that manipulating transient data generated during gameplay through third-party software does not infringe copyright according to the EU’s Computer Programs Directive. This distinction between protecting a game’s code and the temporary data it generates is a very significant one for all developers of game-enhancing tools.

The Advocate General also highlighted that the variable values in question are not original works of the game’s author but result from player interactions and game progression, which are unpredictable and dynamic. Since they depend on unforeseeable factors, these values lie beyond the author’s creative control. This viewpoint might also influence the legal stance on other software tools, such as ad-blocking plugins, which have faced similar legal challenges.

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