I will always remember Lik-sang. And I will always remember what Sony did to them.

Regardless of what people think, Nintendo and MS never forced Lik-sang to close - although they could have. But Sony did - and for (IMO) completely unreasonable reasons (selling their products?).

The moment that Lik-sang closed marked the start of my official "Screw Sony and screw Sony products" campaign - and I will (and have been) doing my best to officially boycott all Sony products from that moment - TVs, game machines...etc.

It gives me no end of satisfaction that Sony have struggled ever since LikSang.

 

nicomcm said: You dont know the details it seems KruzeS... you haven't read all the case... Or do you mean justice has made a mistake ?

No, I don't, but neither do you, or have you? And I don't have to think justice made a mistake to disagree with the outcome of it. I don't even have to agree with the law, just as long as I abide by it.

Regardless, what I can tell you for sure is, that no matter what Sony (or Microsoft, or Nintendo) would want you to believe, "grey importing" is not illegal. It may not be a very viable business, given strict EU regulations, but it is certainly not illegal. As long as LikSang's products were conformant with EU safety regulations (which they say they were, Sony says they weren't, I have no reason to believe either way), and as long as they themselves (not Sony) provided a two-year warranty with 30 day replacements to Euro customers (which I'm pretty sure they didn't), it can be perfectly legal. Sony doesn't have to authorize jack shit, no matter what they say. There are a number of brick-and-mortars that import electronics equiments, like other regions or even region-free DVD players, as well as movies. You think those are sanctioned by the movie industry? And it's not any store. In Portugal, where I live, imports DVDs are even sanctioned by a state agency before relase (like any DVDs, CDs and games).

What I'm getting at is that one thing is what LikSang was actually found guilty of, another very different thing is what Sony wants to convince us of in their press releases. This is not just Sony, Nintendo Europe recently had a press release about modchips that was little more than FUD. The thing is, even if your business is "perfectly" legit, nothing really is (I mean perfect), and a big company like Sony will always find some flaw, and sue you into oblivion -if only you're too big to ignore. The funny thing is, in the end, and to avoid the bad press of closing what was already a huge fan store, Sony excuses themselves by saying LikSang didn't even put up a defense, in which case they wouldn't have been found guilty at all, it'd be a judgment by default.

PS: Yes, I very well know the difference between hardware and software imports. You think I'd make comments about two-year warranties if I was talking software? I've imported a ton of stuff from abroad, have you? I've imported hardware from as reputable stores as Amazon.com into Europe. So what?

@ shams

They illegally sold Asian consoles into the European market. This happening on a large scale would be a logistical nightmare for Sony, PSPs and PS3s are updated through localized firmware updates and aren't fully compatible for instance due to agreements in the movie industry to have different release shedules for different markets.

Victims:
- Retailers who do abide by laws.
- Sony, logistics and support difficulties
- Possibly consumers, who think they buy a second hand European device (they are living in Europe afterall) and experiencing problems.

After lawsuits from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, the company knew they were in for trouble if they continued the road they were stubbornly taking.

maddox!

play-asia better!
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-1bm7-49-en.html

ziss said: play-asia better! http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-1bm7-49-en.html

 Play asia is more expensive then liksang was and didn't give you points towards some really nice freebies.

 

Nintendo sued over them selling flash and rom storing devices for DS/GBA etc I can understand that.. it's copywrite infringement. Sony sued for the big sin of selling PSP's because.. sony needs to sell less of those... supply is a problem. 

I so do not think... The prices were about identical, here business more likely of taste. And in my opinion on play-asia more and more competently it is made.

MikeB said: @ shams completely unreasonable reasons (selling their products) They illegally sold Asian consoles into the European market. This happening on a large scale would be a logistical nightmare for Sony, PSPs and PS3s are updated through localized firmware updates and aren't fully compatible for instance due to agreements in the movie industry to have different release shedules for different markets. Victims: - Retailers who do abide by laws. - Sony, logistics and support difficulties - Possibly consumers, who think they buy a second hand European device (they are living in Europe afterall) and experiencing problems. After lawsuits from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, the company knew they were in for trouble if they continued the road they were stubbornly taking.

You can take consumers off your list of victims, I think. Lik-Sang is a very unusual site that is particularly asian in appearance. It had giant labels all over it telling you how it worked, so I really would be surprised if even a single person purchased anything on their site by accident. 

This is a lawsuit that was done to benefit Sony and the European retailers that sold Sony products. It was not done to benefit consumers; in fact, I'm quite sure that most (all?) of the consumers who purchased items on Lik-Sang would prefer that the site was still open. In short: the suit was done to make Sony money, even at the expense of customer satisfaction. Those types of suits aren't uncommon, and they are universally reviled by the consumers involved.

Frankly, I don't think it's a huge deal. Companies do this type of thing all the time, and telling a company not to make more money is a little silly, especially when they do so by precisely following the law. It's an image problem, not a philosophical one. 

 

shams said: I will always remember Lik-sang. And I will always remember what Sony did to them. Regardless of what people think, Nintendo and MS never forced Lik-sang to close - although they could have. But Sony did - and for (IMO) completely unreasonable reasons (selling their products?). The moment that Lik-sang closed marked the start of my official "Screw Sony and screw Sony products" campaign - and I will (and have been) doing my best to officially boycott all Sony products from that moment - TVs, game machines...etc. It gives me no end of satisfaction that Sony have struggled ever since LikSang.

That's pretty sad. I hate microsoft but I'm not going to boycott a good product.

I really don't see what the big deal is. Lik-sang took away consoles from where they were supposed to be going. I had a pre-order in with them and still have my response in gmail saying they can't do it anymore due to Sony. I'm not sure why that should make me hate Sony. I still got a PS3 at launch.

Edit:  And, I expect Lik-sang would not have gotten me a PS3 at launch. 

So does any retailer need to provide a 2 year warranty on consumer elctronics in Europe? It can't be the manufacturer's warranty(assuming there is one). This 2-year warranty thing was mandated by Sony, right?