14 DAY TRIAL // The European Court of Justice has ruled that it is legal for users to bypass the Digital Rights Management measures that Nintendo has implemented on the Wii U and the 3DS as long as the modifications are only made in order to allow for third-party legal content to be played.
The ruling states, “The Court of Justice notes that the scope of legal protection of technical measures must not be assessed according to the use of consoles defined by the holder of copyright, but that rather it is necessary to examine the purpose of devices provided for the circumvention of protection measures.”
This basically means that it is still illegal to hack a console in order to play content that was pirated, but that modders are now free to release hacks that allow for legal content for other companies to be played.
The current ruling might be expanded to other home consoles if more cases are brought before the European Court of Justice, according to NeoGAF.