Connectix Wins First Round of Sony Lawsuit

The San Francisco Federal District Court yesterday rejected Sony’s request for a temporary restraining order on shipments of Connectix’s Virtual Game Station, a PlayStation emulator for Apple’s G3 Macs. On TidBITS Talk, there’s been speculation that Sony is suing Connectix not because the company expects to win, but because it’s important for companies to protect their intellectual property. If Sony didn’t sue in this situation, that fact might hurt Sony in a future lawsuit. Since companies often lose money on console video game hardware, instead reaping profits in sales or licensing of the games, it’s unlikely that Sony wants to stop sales of Virtual Game Station, which stands only to increase sales of PlayStation games. Along with other interesting information, we’ve posted additional details about Virtual Game Station’s hardware requirements. It turns out that Apple’s G3 Macs meet all the requirements, but other hardware combinations may as well.