Sony announced Monday that Canadian authorities have shut down an operation selling "mod chips" that allow the company's PlayStation 2 game console to play pirated discs. Federal prosecutors charged Robert Garby of Ottowa with selling illegal mod chips and pirated games through his "Kustum Komputers" business. He pled guilty in Ontario Court of Justice in Ottawa to six counts of criminal code violations and copyright law infringement and was fined $17,000 and sentenced to a year of probation.

Sony is one of several game machine makers fighting manufacturers of mod chips, console add-ons that typically have to be soldered to the console's main circuit board. Once installed, the mod chips typically defeat copy protection measures, allowing machines to play illegally copied discs and discs intended for other regions. A handful of mod chips for Microsoft's Xbox game machine have gone into circulation in the past few months, with hackers counting on the chips to allow them to run home brew software such as MP3 players and the Linux operating system. Microsoft representatives have said the company is considering legal action against mod chip makers, but the company has offered no details of any prosecution efforts.