Lik-Sang.com Taken to Court By Sony

Joe writes "As published on Lik-Sang's Website Sony has taken legal actions against Hong Kong's largest exporter of videogames and videogaming gear. One month before the official european launch and 9 months after the initial release of the PSP, this action looks very late at first sight. Since it's highly doubtful that Sony can permit the resale of the japanese PSP consoles in Hong Kong no matter if on the local market or for export, it looks like this is planned to be one of the not the bright marketing ideas of the Sony HQ. The japanese PSP has the same Region Code for UMDs as the ones which will be sold in europe in september. Since the shipping at Lik-Sang is free, the console is even cheaper to import than to buy it locally."

Region codes

[confusion]

Those region codes are SO convenient for consumers. I just LOVE travelling abroad and not being able to watch my dvds. I shouldn't be suprised that SONY would think to do this with UMD too. bah.

Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/ [cyvin.org]

Re:Region codes

[Forzamilan]

You are totally right, region codes sucks and are an obsolete technology from the 80s when nintendo used it on their NES. Why do we have to buy another movie in region 4 when i already have it in region 1?

Fiction.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Since the shipping at Lik-Sang is free, the console is even cheaper to import than to buy it locally."

By the time you've added the UPS Handling Fees, VAT and import duty, it is NOT cheaper.

Global market

[jurt1235]

I thought companies want a global market and are pressing the G7/8 (depends on how you count) to help them in that. But when the market acts back in a global way by protesting against region codings, delayed movie releases (thus watching the copies from the internet), the same companies protest by using their legal means and shear size.

In short: Sony, stop acting like a little kid, just be global, dump region codings, dump price strategies and just sell you products for a fair price all over the globe.

Greed

[CrashRoX]

Sony is being greedy over a few dollars. This company is buying and selling mass amounts of usits. Sony should be happy they are getting there wholesale rate, im sure it doesnt change that much from country to country, its all relative. The whole point of internet commerce is having the ability to find competitive prices and order from anywhere in the world.

Boo Sony

[nmaster64]

See, companies like Sony complain about people importing their products, but if they'd just bring their products to us quicker, this wouldn't happen. Can someone give me one good reason they couldn't launch the PSP in Europe at the same time they launched it in America? If companies can make it more of a priority to bring products to overseas markets quicker, or at all in many cases, than they are going to have to deal with the reality of importing as a consumer solution. For the record, I totally back Lik-Sang.com. They're where I import my Gamecube games from. Awesome site. Down with Sony!

Re:Region codes

[MyDixieWrecked]

the idea behind UMD movies is pretty cool.

however, the implementation BLOWS.

a UMD movie has less features and less quality than a DVD... why does it cost at least as much as one? UMD movies should be free in boxes of cereal. They should come with games. they should come with DVDs. They should cost less than a pack of cigarettes (I live in NY, so a pack of cigarettes costs upwards of 7-8$).

Nooo...

[Anonymous Coward]

LikSang is so awesome...they are the same people who make those xbox controller to kbm adapters...someone won a tournament using one of those...I hope they make it through the lawsuit!

Who cares

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Couldn't careless what Sony say. I just bought a DS and it truely deserves to be called innovative. Keep your PSPs and whatever else. When you have a game as fun as Zoo Keeper is then maybe I'll look.

Untill then go back to pulling tricks like this and even the Sony fanboys will hate you

More of a problem for Sony

[aliquis]

Regarding regions and when it will be released here in Europe, I don't see the trouble for Lik-Sang. Sonys own fault...

Lik-Sang FTW.

Re:Region codes

[mad flyer]

Yes sir, it says not for resale.

It don't forbid me to possess it and leave for another country.

They should enforce the selling part, not the viewing part.

By doing region coding they alienate the end user in order to try to conceal the sellers... As usual, customers are collateral damages...

Re:Cheaper?

[(A)*(B)!0_-]

"Allowing homebrew to run will not kill them, as what I am proposing would not allow dumped UMD images to run, only people's own code."

No, it wouldn't "kill" Sony. [Why are we using language like that to discuss this matter anyway?] Allowing homebrew software to run unsigned would add competition to the marketplace, which is something that developers for the PSP would not appreciate. Sony doesn't want homebrew games being released to keep developers happy and because it generates no income for them.

Re:Boo Sony

[TobyWong]

I think initially they were worried they would not be able to produce enough PSPs to meet demand. After all they "soft launched" in north america due to uncertainty about how well it would be received.

Looking at how many titles have come out since launch and at the extremely immature state of the PSP firmware(nice "user-friendly" filesystem you got there sony), this thing was not ready for release anywhere. This is a device that is capable of some very impressive things but limped out of the gates with some pretty sorry software/firmware support.

For the record I actually imported my jap PSP back in january through lik sang but don't tell anyone... I don't want the sony enforcers showing up on my doorstep to beat me up.

 

Free trade

[pieterh]

It's charmingly naive to believe that juidicial or legislative bodies are concerned with free trade. Mainly, they represent power interests and as such the laws created by and for those interests. "Free trade" comes onto the agenda when there is an advantage to be gained: mainly, in access to a market otherwise protected by anti-import legislation.

As another poster in this thread pointed out, free trade is rarely done out of principle, not even by institutions such as the WTO that claim this as their reason for existence.

Thus, the USA can subsidise its own cotton farmers to the point where countries like Niger cannot sell their cotton on the world market for a fair price. That's ok. But when Airbus get cheap loans from governments, that's not ok.

"Free trade" is excellent in theory and nice when it actually happens, but don't imagine it's the top priority for many people except economists.

Your games are region-protected because as a consumer, you don't actually have any rights except to spend / not spend your money. If you don't like companies that rip you off, don't buy their products.

Re:Does Lik-Sang have the resources to fight this?

[defile]

I purchased a GBA transfer cable so that I could develop a videogame using someone else's content. I developed a demo and sent it to the creator. The creator appeared not to like the idea. Since the product was dead, I released it to the general public, code only.

Does that sound like video game piracy to you?

Yes, in addition to booting an image over the cable (that's how multiplayer games work, in addition to my game demo), the GBA transfer cable allows you to copy ROMs onto blank cartridges. Some people could use that for illegal file copying purposes, but I don't think the amateur developer market needs to die because some people copy content illegally.

Console makers argue piracy, but these lawsuits are just as much about the manufacturer maintaining their ability to create artficial supply in the market.

Re:Say that again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Still wrong.

Since it's highly doubtful that Sony can prevent the resale of the Japanese PSP consoles in Hong Kong (whether or not they are available for export), this seems to be a rather poor marketing idea coming from Sony's headquarters.

Simple:

[Arkan]

Don't buy it. Show Sony that they're doing the wrong thing when suing right and left when people try to give them money. Tell them with the only thing they understand: money. Or the lack of, actually.

--
Arkan