Lik-Sang.com announced today it is being sued by Sony

[Mr. Rare]

"August 8, 2005 - Hong Kong-based online retailer Lik-Sang.com announced today it is being sued by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for selling Japanese PlayStation Portable systems to UK customers ahead of the PSP's European debut in September."

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/640/640109p1.html

[dj898]

it's old news...
but do you know that SONY itself does not hold the trademark on following terms/names?

PSP - Owtanet Ltd
UMD - Olympus Corp
XMB

I say European branch got zealous 'coz they can't charge inflated price to UK and other EU customers...

[SilverBolt]

I hope lik-sang wins this, that would open up the import games buisness a lot more if comapnies know they are in their right to do so.

[liquitt]

FUCK YOU SONY!! They should be happy that their crappy system IS sold...

[WolverineDK]

Liquitt: my words exactly, and they will sell the PSP here in Denmark for 2110 kroner or some thing like that.So yes to your curse.

[wheelaa]

For what little its worth I have already emailed Sony Europe telling them I for one won't be buying a Euro PSP. After all it will only be over 6 months late compared to other regions, and most likely retail at the typically over inflated prices that new Sony items sell for here in the UK.


FUCK YOU SONY!!

With sugar on top.

[Yakumo]

FUCK YOU SONY!!


With sugar on top.

and a blob of whipped cream :D

Yakumo

[WolverineDK]

FUCK YOU SONY
Pretty please

With sugar on top

and a blob of whipped cream

that is what i would call a creampie ;-):smt043

[liquitt]

i planned to buy a psp, suck my dick sony, i won't!!

that's just ridiculous...

[Chief Chujo]

Isnt this a restriction of free trade or anti-competitive or something.
Shouldn't there be laws in place to stop bullshit like this.
Things were looking up in Australia with the ACCC ruling region coding(on both games and DVD's) was anti competitive and both modchips and multi region players were ruled legal. But I think the new FTA with the U.S has fucked all that over.
Sometimes I fucking hate corporations(then I remember all the cool shit they make).

[wheelaa]

Isnt this a restriction of free trade or anti-competitive or something.
Shouldn't there be laws in place to stop bullshit like this.


To an extent there are. However as far as Europe is concerned the only laws/regulations with any real force are the EC directives on Freedom of Movement, Trade, Competition law etc, which only cater for EC members dealing with other EC members.

(NB (All under EU law) As a supplier Sony can indeed impose restrictions of trade on those entities it supplies, their argument being that if distributor A, based in Japan say, sells to Europe that screws things up for distributor B, based in Europe, who's area to sell to is Europe etc. Even so Sony can't tell A not to sell to Europe if they receive a request from a European ie passive sales, they can only tell A not seek out European business ie active sales.)

Sony are still GITS mind.

[Sinjd]

I want this to get mass media attention, so that the general public can see that Sony are trying to screw them out of money, by blocking off a cheaper route to ownership of the PSP and that Europeans all give sony the finger and dont buy into the PSP... unfortunately it's not gonna happen cos of all the fecking weiner kids who will buy the piece of crap just cos it looks cool... -_-

[zappenduster]

To an extent there are. However as far as Europe is concerned the only laws/regulations with any real force are the EC directives on Freedom of Movement, Trade, Competition law etc, which only cater for EC members dealing with other EC members.

(NB (All under EU law) As a supplier Sony can indeed impose restrictions of trade on those entities it supplies, their argument being that if distributor A, based in Japan say, sells to Europe that screws things up for distributor B, based in Europe, who's area to sell to is Europe etc. Even so Sony can't tell A not to sell to Europe if they receive a request from a European ie passive sales, they can only tell A not seek out European business ie active sales.)

Sony are still GITS mind.

but they own the right to limit the sale of its own brand in countrys they want thats the confusion where the law of free trade in the uk colides with the right to sell and marketing your brand where you want or dont want

will be a interesting fight

[socialdrone]

if a company doesnt want to sell its products to every market thats their choice. but once those products are sold, why should a company have the right to limit the resale of a product to exclude a specific region?

people need to fight this crap. awhile ago i decided i would only buy used/second hand sony products. sony doesnt get my money, directly at least.

[dj898]

i believe so that SONY can charge the silly inflated price to EU customers...
same here really... most new game cost around A$89-99 per pop!
that's around U$67.80-75.35... I'm sure they don't cost that much over Pacific Ocean... :p

and top it off they often delay the PAL release by several months when there's no apparent changes/improvements... :(

imho SONY doesn't deserve my money... well, at least European branch...

[GaijinPunch]

You guys are forgetting that Lik Sang is in China. It's very likely jack shit will happen to them.

[zappenduster]

You guys are forgetting that Lik Sang is in China. It's very likely jack shit will happen to them.

him customs taking care of every packet tha lik san sends to the us would already work =)

and hard to say what happens to a dealer either how big he is if he pisses of one of the major console companys

[dj898]

well here in AUS if you import Nintendo product - i.e. consoles - you need to go down to the Custom House and sign the waiver form to get it released... no tax or anything but just the waiver form stating it is for private use and not for resale... I had to do for my JP GC as well as GBA-SP LE from Japan both times... :(

[macwest]

Sonys actions are like shooting yourself in the foot. If you continue to piss on your customers eventualy they will go to your competition. I know for me I have stopped buying any new sony products. For games I do xbox or nintendo first if it is a sony only I buy it used so sony will not see any new money from the sale.

[Hawanja]

Fucking greedy ass Sony doesn't have a leg to stand on. They made thier money when Lik-Sang bought the consoles from them in the first place. Unless there's a law that says they're not allowed to import them without Sony's permission then I don't see what they're getting at. Isn't anything bought from Lik-sang and other HK importers considered secondary market anyway?

[dj898]

SONY likes to think it can control the market and charge what it think suitable for that market - usually more inflated price... yea well, dream on SONY... :p

[Topic Archive]

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you...

SONY 'convienently' seem to forget that Lik-Sang buy sh8t loads of PSP's and sh8t loads of PSP games!!!

...They should be praising Lik-Sang as a top seller not acting like some spoilt jealous kid.

:smt022

[virtual alan]

For my two penneth worth.......I think Sony are really shooting themselves in the foot here.

There isn`t really a difference between an individual importing an item (even if he gets stuffed for duty etc) or a company exporting. The purchaser has paid the appropriate costs, the importer is likely to pay the import costs, so at the end of the day Sony are getting money and also creating extra work and revenue for the various mail offices and customs people around the world.

One of the big game store chains in the UK (Gamestation) have not been given PSP`s to demo the units whereas GAME :-( and Dixon`s (Electrical retailer) have, so work that out.

Gamestation have obtained a HUGE load of PSP`s and game`s so that theya re able to demo the thing to potential customers....so in fact doing Sony a favour. But they don`t seem to see that!

Also all this Sony suing UK importers and a load coughed up £1000 for a fee, only for those who said no to be offered a fee of £500..................so those that paid £1000 are now extremely pissed off.

What is the odd £1000 here and there for a congolmerate like Sony???? buggar all. They probably pay more on elastic bands in half an hour :-)

I do have several Sony Products.......but I now hardly ever tend to buy anything new from them. I probably will get a PSP in due course....but only when they start being traded in so they are not get any more revenue from me!

Especially galling is the fact that everyone is aware that they don`t own "PSP" in the UK. So how are they legally allowed to sue people for something they don`t own.

Sony can go and Fuck themselves for all I care..........I hope PSP and PS3 fall flat on their arse.............I am sure that 360 will romp away as more and more PS2 gamers/fanboys will want to take the next generation step and will follow the crowds and take 360 as it is here now (in a manner of speaking)

Rant over :-)

[dj898]

seriously if SONY Europe is that pissed it should pay little visit to SONY USA and SONY Japan... and they will kick SONY Europe's arse so hard it won't be able to sit for a long time...
:p

[zappenduster]

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you...

SONY 'convienently' seem to forget that Lik-Sang buy sh8t loads of PSP's and sh8t loads of PSP games!!!

...They should be praising Lik-Sang as a top seller not acting like some spoilt jealous kid.

:smt022

but they can make more money if they sell it without imports, in europe they kinda convert $ to euro 1:1 or pound so 199$ are 199 euro if we are lucky but in reality 199 euro would be around 250$ so sony makes 50$ bonus for nothing...

[dj898]

that I call it day light robbery...

[virtual alan]

Just as a guide, exchange rates etc from www.xe.net (http://www.xe.net/)

TOYS R US - USA PSP Value pack $249.99 = E209.41 = £139.99
TOYS R US - UK PSP Value pack £179.99 = E259.20 = $322.76
LIK SANG - PSP Value pack $279.99 = E226.14 = £156.14
AMAZON.FR - PSP Value pack E249.99 = £172.43 = $309.81

So in the UK & Europe we are best to have GSL Heavy Industries arrange shipping etc
In the US you are laughing anyway.

So once again the UK & Europe we get fleeced and months after the item was on sale!

More reason that Sony can go and F@@K themselves!!!!



Check this out for what it`s worth!!!

http://www.petitiononline.com/sonypsp/petition.html

[AntiPasta]

That's it, for the first time I agree that Sony can go commit autopaedicatio, this is just stupid.
(however, compared to M$ I still think of it as the lesser evil)

I'm going to America in 6 days, any fellow Europeans want a PSP? ;-)

[XerdoPwerko]

Sshhhh, Anti! Don't say it in public, you might get sued!

[sayin999]

lol, nintendo is probably the friendlyist when it comes to imports, they dont really go to any great lengths to stop them, though some games seems to be hardcoded for cube to work in japanese mode as some games with freeloader wont act right or the game might display giberish, im guessing the japanese side of teh bios contains maybe a text within it or somehting, belive ti or not sega was the friendlyist when it came to importing, for dc when it was possible to play imports on a us system they shrugged it off and said that it wasnt piracy so they were fine with it.

[AntiPasta]

lol, nintendo is probably the friendlyist when it comes to imports, they dont really go to any great lengths to stop them,

That is untrue. They did the same in the UK with imported Cube games.

[Yakumo]

Sega have mostly always been ok with imports. They even allowed UBI Soft back in the 90's to import Japanese Telenet games along with converters for sale in the UK. I remember that Gairies or however you spell it was one of these games.

Yakumo

[wheelaa]

That is untrue. They did the same in the UK with imported Cube games.

Not just cube stuff either. Try finding import retro nintendo stuff in UK stores. Nintendo stopped places like cex (poor I know) selling these too.

Sadly Sony know they can get away with this crap though as it only really pisses off the more serious gamer/games fan (like myself say who will never buy another Sony item except on the private market). Mr Casual games fan couldn't give a monkeys and will quite happily pay the extornionate amount Sony Europe have decided to price the PSP at. Scotes the lot of them.

Indeed, Sony Europe, you are an :smtassho: e-o-e-o, e-o-e-o. You're an :smtassho: e-o-e-o, e-o-e-o (repeat endlessly ad nauseum)

[AntiPasta]

Sega have mostly always been ok with imports. They even allowed UBI Soft back in the 90's to import Japanese Telenet games along with converters for sale in the UK. I remember that Gairies or however you spell it was one of these games.

Yakumo

Gaiares? Not a bad choice I'd say :drinkers: