More than a game: Did Nintendo v. PC Box give manufacturers more control over the use of hardware?

The impact of the judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union issued in the case C-355/12 Nintendo v. PC Box, which concerned the scope of protection granted to technological protection measures (TPMs) of videogames, goes beyond the videogame industry. The CJEU confirmed that TPMs entailing both software media and hardware are admissible. Moreover, according to the CJEU, if a software product also contains other copyrighted media, the general provisions of European copyright law concerning copyright take precedence over software-specific provisions. The article discusses to what extent additional protection of TPMs has been made available to hardware manufacturers, who are also copyright holders, to software which allows the hardware to perform its function.