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Christopher Paul Gilham tried to appeal his conviction for modding various game consoles, and this is what the court decided...
The various drawings that result in the images shown on the television screen or monitor are themselves artistic works protected by copyright. The images shown on the screen are copies, and substantial copies, of those works. If the game is the well-known Tomb Raider, for example, the screen displays Lara Croft, a recognisable character who has been created by the labour and skill of the original artist. It is not necessary in future to show that a substantial copy of the game is made in Random Access Memory (RAM), all that needs to be shown is that some copyright work contained within the videogame is substantially copied e.g. the image of a game character. - Court statement
Looks like Mr. Gilham isn't going to get that decision overturned. Looks like he might think twice about stealing intellectual property again!
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Eh? He installed mod chips. The way it goes he could get a harsher sentence than you know, the real crooks, the ones selling counterfeit games on eBay etc...
Thing is I find this bit scary:
It is to be noted that this issue does not depend on the intention of a defendant who is not responsible for the design, production or adaptation of the device, product or component: his intention is irrelevant.
If we take that sort of thinking further (and if guns were legal for sale in the UK) we could do a witch hunt on gun shop owners charging them with accessory to murder because the intention of guns to be used for self defence is irrelevant.
All that said if the shop in question alluded to the use of modchips in piracy rather than other uses (making the systems region free) then the whole profiting off copyright infringement thing does have some base.