Sony sueing lik-sang !!!!111

[shizzle]

From psp updates:

"We have just received this press release from Lik-Sang. I have colored parts that I thought were important. Otherwise it was unedited. Let me add a note that we fully back Lik-Sang.com, and as a Hong Kong resident I can verify that they are operating 100% within the law. Lik-Sang.com will continue to be our #1 choice and recommended console retailer. If there is anything we can do to help, you guys have my contact info.

Hong Kong, August 8, 2005 - Lik-Sang.com, leading online retailer for videogame systems, games and cutting-edge gaming gear, was today informed that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc commenced legal actions against Lik-Sang.com in the High Court of Hong Kong for selling PSP consoles.

Sony of Europe alleges that Lik-Sang.com has breached Sony's Trade Mark rights by offering the PlayStation Portable (PSP) for sale to customers in the UK, and seeks a court order that would prevent Lik-Sang.com from selling or offering systems, games and accessories to customers in the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA).

Sony further claims copyright infringement and damages by mirroring the freely available PSP manual on the news section of Lik-Sang.com during early June. Sony UK warned Lik-Sang.com at June 14 to take legal actions, should the manual and any hypertext links to Sony's web site not be removed. Lik-Sang.com complied with Sony's request to remove the manual immediately.

This lawsuit comes as a total surprise to Lik-Sang.com, given that the laws of Hong Kong are clear when it comes to parallel trade. Hong Kong's legislation is based on the fact that allowing parallel and free trade will restore natural competition and benefit consumers with lower prices. Hong Kong, one of the pioneering countries respecting worldwide exhaustion of trademark rights, allows free trade once an item entered the market for sale.

The company running Lik-Sang.com, Pacific Game Technology (Holding) Limited, is fully registered and operating in Hong Kong and has no ties with the UK. The company is currently looking into available options to combat Sony's cynical attempt to disrupt the successful online business again, gain total market control, and garner publicity.

"Lik-Sang's sales are an unlawful interference with Sony's economic interests", stated Sony's legal correspondence. The case relies on Sony's claim, that Lik-Sang.com has advertised the PlayStation Portable products in a "dishonest manner". Lik-Sang.com will do its best to fight Sony's powers and appreciates any support from employees, friends and even customers.

"This is the most aggressive move against its own customers that a console manufacturer has ever taken in the 30 year history of videogames", says Pascal Clarysse, Marketing Manager for Lik-Sang.com. "Sony wants to completely cut hardcore gamers away from items released in Japan or anywhere else outside their own country. A very active part of the gaming community has been enjoying Japanese gaming culture for over two decades, and that's what the Empire is now willing to destroy."

Daily business is unaffected by this lawsuit. Customers in the UK and elsewhere don't have to worry about negative side effects or disruption of service. Shipping, Customer Support and Ordering Processing are fully operational and Lik-Sang.com remains open as usual. The sites news section will be updated as soon as the situation evolves."

Why are sony doing this. (Akio morita) sony founder would be turning in his grave. But nothing can stop his evil preceeder:

http://mars.walagata.com/w/dreamcastmagic/Hitler-4_copy.gif

[D-Boy]

Haha that picture is a nice touch, sums him up. I'm lucky since I already got my psp shipped to me in the UK but this is very unfortunate for everyone else and for lik-sang themselves who are actually doing a lot for the european gaming community.

[leggy]

Sony are acting like complete idiots over this matter.

I still fail to see why they have such a problem with outlets selling PSP's.

BTW - comparing the CEO of Sony to Hitler is a disgrace!

[shizzle]

i didn't make the pic, but found it most hillarious: HAHAHAHAHAHA. and the like

it was on the lik sang forums.

[TMG]

Alot to read. Anyways Ive already pre-ordered my ceramic white psp, is this going to effect my shipment?

[shadowprophet]

I think you may have a point with that pic shizzle, thats deep bro.
I wonder how long it will be before $ony rounds up us psp owners with homebrew on our systems,and put us in concentration camps :(

Damn with sonys actions there acting worse then Nintendont ever did back when Nintendont ruled with an iron fist.

I used to like $ony but somthigs happened to them,
I guess its true,absolute power corrupts absolutly. :eek:

[LordVox]

This is just wrong. I understood when Nintndo wanted lik-sang to stop selling GBA development kits, or if $ony wanted them to stop selling modchipz or things like that, but this is just insane. What is osny tying to achive? Do they just want to stop it NOW, thant they are finally shipping to the EU? Is this about region encoding of UMD movies? It all seems completely assinine!!!!
to LIK-SANG....good luck, our thoughs (and all common sense) are with you!

[geise69]

I don't know why everyone thinks it's about homebrew/piracy? I feel that it's more of a localization thing. Sony is forking out alot of money for the systems to be manufactured for the UK and have already suffered a loss in system sales. These systems that import stores are selling make the profit not sony. Granted, sony got the money when all the UK stores ordered them for their shops, but with everyone buying the sytems from import stores there's going to be fewer people buying UK psp units when they hit in a couple weeks. So another loss for sony. (not that they have enough money anyways) I think what sony is doing is wrong, but I still feel that this isn't about homebrew/piracy. This just makes them look bad and seems to be the trend for them over the past couple of years.

[candrews]

i bet this has more to do with region coding for umd movies sony probally fears that if EU imports from japan sony would loose the EU region umd movie market bc everyone will have jp psp and the movie company would not want to distbute in europe bc of it and they could loose money in umd sales.

[BlackxKnight]

i bet this has more to do with region coding for umd movies sony probally fears that if EU imports from japan sony would loose the EU region umd movie market bc everyone will have jp psp and the movie company would not want to distbute in europe bc of it and they could loose money in umd sales.i thought that the PSP had no region....so that wouldnt be a factor.

[candrews]

games dont have region but UMD movies do

[WSOUNitePirate895]

"Sony further claims copyright infringement and damages by mirroring the freely available PSP manual on the news section of Lik-Sang.com during early June. Sony UK warned Lik-Sang.com at June 14 to take legal actions, should the manual and any hypertext links to Sony's web site not be removed. Lik-Sang.com complied with Sony's request to remove the manual immediately."

How is this infrigment?? further acusations to get a hearing is all it is... omg sony...

"This lawsuit comes as a total surprise to Lik-Sang.com, given that the laws of Hong Kong are clear when it comes to parallel trade. Hong Kong's legislation is based on the fact that allowing parallel and free trade will restore natural competition and benefit consumers with lower prices. Hong Kong, one of the pioneering countries respecting worldwide exhaustion of trademark rights, allows free trade once an item entered the market for sale."

Sony is just upset... I like the hitler picture, haha, anyways I believe sony will lose this battle because, the HK laws are very vague about the matter if its "free trade" as stated above, sony will have to battle with laws of HK. I cant understand why they are doing this,the PSP are Authentic models, they are being sold at the MSRP or little over it, the company in question is simply trading these items that have become available in the area, and dont remember anything anywhere about not being allowed to import.

The only thing that would qualify for legal action is if, someone made a "Treamcast" version of the PSP which violates the trademarks, and is infrigment and all that legal stuff.
Final Verdict: Lik-Sang 1, Sony 0

[BlackxKnight]

games dont have region but UMD movies dooh well then you definitly have a valid point. but like the post above me said i dont think Sony really has a case because its not like they are underselling or selling modded units, theyre just selling jp psps to countrys theyre not available.

it seems like lik-sang has cooperated with sony so it seems odd and a little unprofessional of them to blindside em with a lawsuit

[candrews]

That one of the reason i hate region coding i dont think it would have been a big deal if the movies werent region. i have never fully understand the reason behind region coding in the first place.

[shizzle]

because when tvs first came out they were manufactured with the type of broadcast/recive to best suit the country. When /vhs/dvd came out they complied with the region coding so it would work with the tv. Same with consoles. The movies are so that when you connect to your region 2 ps3 it won't comeout black and white on the tv.
It's too complicated to make certain countries switch.

[WSOUNitePirate895]

to the above post nope, it has almost very little to do with coding and NTSC and PAL.

Its all marketing, you cant have certain video in some place for some reason, and its always been that way, DVD's have region coding, PS2,xbox have region codes It's all about the different Regions and different companies of the region making money.

Its the same reason as in Direct TV or dish or any other cable provider, the channels like for me I live in the East of the US, I cant watch West channel versions of ABC, CBS, FOX, etc. For market purposes... they have made laws, so this might be the same with the UMDs, DVDs, and all region protected softwares.

[shizzle]

you mean to say that east and west US have different types of NTSC. I'm sure mine is right because tvs have been PAL/ NTSC years before video or marketed products were out.

Consoles/players are using it to there advantage.

[candrews]

i found this about region coding at about.com


Why is this, you ask? According to what the public is being told is that this is a tool to protect copyright and film distribution rights (in other words, movie studio profits). You see, movies are released in theaters in different parts of the world at different times throughout the year. That Summer blockbuster in the U.S. may end up being the Christmas blockbuster overseas. If that occurs, the DVD version of the movie may be out in the U.S. while it is still showing in theaters overseas. In order to preserve the financial integrity of the theatrical distribution of a particular film, it is not possible (under normal conditions) to have a friend in the U.S. send a DVD copy of the film to the country where it is in theatrical release and be able to play the DVD on a player there.

here is the link to the article: http://hometheater.about.com/cs/dvdlaserdisc/a/aaregioncodesa.htm

[Cross]

I think its a disgrace to Hitler not Sony (Response to I think the 4th post on saying Hitler was a disgrace to the Sony CEO, Hitler was evil but again read the book the Japan that could not say no. We atleast did something about Hitler)

Sony is just crying, but oh well thats what they do when someone disrupts things they planned a certian way.

[shizzle]

but essentianlly, it still has to comply with pal /ntsc rules.

[Code Ninja]

to the above post nope, it has almost very little to do with coding and NTSC and PAL.

Its all marketing, you cant have certain video in some place for some reason, and its always been that way, DVD's have region coding, PS2,xbox have region codes It's all about the different Regions and different companies of the region making money.

Its the same reason as in Direct TV or dish or any other cable provider, the channels like for me I live in the East of the US, I cant watch West channel versions of ABC, CBS, FOX, etc. For market purposes... they have made laws, so this might be the same with the UMDs, DVDs, and all region protected softwares.

Actually, DirecTV gives me Fox East/West ABC East/West and CBS East/West they won't give me any NBC stations however because I can pick those up with an antenna supposedly.

As for regioning, I agree with with your assessment. Just about everything companies do is put into place to ensure they make money.

[yah_mon]

They just want to make money off the places that get charged more for them. Where I live, it is going to cost $430 NZD (340 - 350USD). This is not fair!! If I wanted to get the right price, and before the SEPTEMBER release I could go and buy it off lik-sang or some other good import company. But, the money goes back to them either way, so why the hell do they care? (Possibly try and make up by charging customers outside the states more :mad: )

[B_man55]

When I ask you, has Sony done anything with remote intelligence or thought?

[xuphorz]

When I ask you, has Sony done anything with remote intelligence or thought?

yes, the psp itself :p