On Thursday, Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that a federal District Court judge had granted the company a preliminary injunction against Connectix for alleged copyright violations of its PlayStation emulator - the Virtual Game Station. The order was handed down after the court found that during the development of the Virtual Game Station, the company did violate Sony's copyrights by copying the PlayStation's BIOS.

　　The injunction prevents Connectix from using the PlayStation BIOS in any of its products, and Connectix must deliver all works based on SCEA's copyrighted properties to the court. Since its introduction, Connectix has claimed that it had not infringed on Sony's intellectual properties during the development of the Virtual Game Station.

　　"We are pleased with the court's ruling, which confirms our belief that Connectix did infringe on our copyright and intellectual property rights," said Kaz Hirai, president and chief operating officer, SCEA. "With close to 19 million PlayStation users throughout North America, it is easy to understand that we must protect our property rights in order to continue to provide consumers with the fulfilling entertainment experience that they have come to expect with PlayStation. Clearly any deviation from the original is simply not satisfactory, and technically nothing, including an emulator, can compare to the gaming experience delivered through the PlayStation game console in tandem with a home television set."