Lik-Sang.com Taken to Court By Sony 219
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."
Cheaper? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cheaper? (Score:3, Interesting)
And its Firmware version 1.50.
Will probably get another one from them when the white ones come out - then I can still do my SNES/Genesis emulation, as well as coding my own stuff as well as having all the cool new features.
Its a pity really, as Sony would earn so much respect by allowing programmers to sign their own code - why cant they come up with a way of doing it that only works on files of say 200MB or less, thus allowinf homebrew, surely they could mak
Re:Cheaper? (Score:2)
Re:Cheaper? (Score:2, Insightful)
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:Cheaper? (Score:2)
This is a stupid, shortsighted policy. It's like a retailer deciding not to allow returns because it costs them money.
Just like allowing customer returns increases profit in the long term because those same people will come back to buy other things, allowing people to play little homebrew games on their PSP would increase its value to potential buyers.
Re:Cheaper? (Score:2)
Re:Cheaper? (Score:2)
Allowing customer returns sacrafices profits in the short term so that profits increase in the long term because of return shopping(most stores make sure of this by only allowing store credit on returns). Allowing unsigned code on the PSP increases losses in the short term AND decreases profits in the long run due to less game sales.
I could see Sony allowing homebrew like they did with the PS2, as an expensive Linux add-on. Although this time al
Re:Cheaper? (Score:2)
Simpler games would no longer have a market in "official" PSP games. While Lumines is a great game, could you see buying it for $40 when 1000 variations of tetris are available for free? This would also hold true for any genre that could be made by homebrew authors.
Homebrew games would be competing directly with the official titles. If one good homebrew game came out in each major genre I could easily see a LOT of PSPs sold without a single game sale.
Re:Cheaper? (Score:2)
Sony's got a great produc
Re:Cheaper? (Score:2)
Unfortunately, as many have pointed out, it's not economically feasible for Sony to allow this.
Either from Nintendo, who have been very hands off so far(tons of homebrew GBA stuff and DS stuff is hitting, no sign of them flashing the firmware yet), or from Gizmondo who actually actively SEEKS that niche.
Do we even know if the DS can be flashed w
Re:Cheaper? (Score:3, Interesting)
Given the choice between earning respect and earning revenue, I'm pretty sure I know which one Sony would rather have.
Re:Cheaper? (Score:2)
Largest exporter of video games? (Score:4, Funny)
This guy? [slashdot.org]
Re:Largest exporter of video games? (Score:2)
Region codes (Score:5, Insightful)
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/ [cyvin.org]
Re:Region codes (Score:5, Interesting)
You can imagine my surprise when after reading all the crap about PSP games not being region encoded, then when UMD movies are finally available I can't play them.
I got my PSP the first week of January. Imported from japan. It's nice that the Japanese PSPs can play US games and vice versa, and not that I would buy them if I could, but it sucks that I can't watch US UMD movies on my japanese PSP.
Re:Region codes (Score:5, Insightful)
however, the implementation BLOWS.
a UMD movie has less features and less quality than a DVD... why does it cost at least as much as one? UMD movies should be free in boxes of cereal. They should come with games. they should come with DVDs. They should cost less than a pack of cigarettes (I live in NY, so a pack of cigarettes costs upwards of 7-8$).
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
The reason UMD costs the same as DVDs is again because Sony knows they can get away with it. Th
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
Or the fact that the maximum supported resolution for such videos is considerably lower than that of UMD movies.
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
I have seen people allude to this fact repeatedly and assumed it might be true. But out of curiosity I used QuickTime to export a segment of an episode of Firefly. When I viewed the result on the PSP the picture appeared to be as good as what I had seen in UMD movies. Is it possible that this fact is an artifact of poorly done conversions produced by utility programs? When I tried some of those ut
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
"With the codec and video expertise of our favorite geek friend, Craig, we tried to convert a video into MPEG-4 format with a 480x272 resolution, which is the native resolution of the PSP LCD. A 480x272 video file should be of higher quality than a stretched 320x240 pixel picture, but unfortunately, all of our attempts failed, no matter what we tried. We would always end up with Incompatible Data or Corrupted Data displayed on our PSP, though it played perfectly on a Windows box."
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
It took me a while to find the converted video on my drive to which I referred in my previous post. Its actual resolution is only 368 x 208 so it doesn't include a pixel for each dot on the PSP display but it scales nicely to 480 x 272 and the data rate of 50 kB/s produces a nice smooth picture.
My 19 MB file plays for about 4 minutes and 24 seconds. So it would take a little over 220 MB for an entire episode. That mean
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
The main point I wanted to emphasize is that I got terrible results when I tried the variou
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
jesus christ. at least I have the advantage of hopping over the river to NJ and getting cigarettes for ~$3 cheaper. or, when I visit my friend in PA, getting cigarettes for under $3. Although I quit smoking a couple months ago (but I still buy a pack here and there to fend off the nicotine rage).
and about the DVD price... I don't see how they're getting away with charging that much. I don't see how anyone's get
Re:Region codes (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Region codes (Score:2, Informative)
Uh, what? They still perform a business function. How are they obsolete?
Why do we have to buy another movie in region 4 when i already have it in region 1?
Because different corporations own the rights to sell the movie in different parts of the world and the region code scheme enforces that. Look on your R1 DVD - it'll say "not for resale outside the US and Canada" or similar. If you are
Re:Region codes (Score:2, Insightful)
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:Region codes (Score:2)
And this lawsuit is more of the same illegal shit. Sony have no right to prevent Lik-Sang from reselling these. This trademark law argument is so weak. They're not selling knock offs, they're selling legally aquired PSPs with the manufacturing trademark on them.
What I don't understand is why so many dimbulbs on Slashdot stand up
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
You really could have fooled me. I would say that people are bent over region codes shows that we do live in a global market.
Sorry guys get over it. The Internet and Fed Ex has made the world a much smaller place.
Re:Region codes (Score:2)
When labor is as free to move as capital, I'll be fully converted. (when land is I'll be fucking amazed.)
Sony has officially gone bananas. (Score:5, Interesting)
Keep doing this, sony and you will be publicly humiliated (again) and fewer people will buy your stuff. Hell, even Microsoft isn't that evil. Try to control the market in such an evil way, and it will always come back and bite you in the ass.
In summary: If Sony was an icecream flavor, they'd be pralines and dick.
Re:Sony has officially gone bananas. (Score:2)
Re:Sony has officially gone bananas. (Score:4, Interesting)
Amen to that MR Willeh.
I put a lot of value on design for the gadgets that I consume, hence I am a mac geek. However, a time came when I needed to run a Windows App and had to choose a laptop from the Wintel world.
From all the available options, the VAIOs were by far the most appealing ones, so I bought a GRX. The only problem? How awfully they are manufactured and supported, as I later unfortunately found out.
One day the thing just wouldn't recognize half of the RAM installed and sometimes it would freeze without any warning sign of any kind. When trying to find out what was wrong with it, I contacted SONY, and it showed me the finger. The official support site didn't mention anything and the help line guys told me that I needed to send in the laptop and pay a service fee at my expense just to see what was going on.
I later found out in here [hardwareanalysis.com] that the problem was indeed common (pins one to ten in the first memory socket were not soldered properly), that SONY knew about it for a long time, and still didn't EVEN put it in a website as a potential problem that could arise in a VAIO.
To this day (three and a half years after its release) SONY still hasn't aknowledged the faulty motherboard problem. Now, I really am not that picky as not to buy a product from a company that has had this kind of problem, because in the end, every company has had their fair share. But SONY has this strange corporate attitude.
Nice ideas, but... beats me. No wonder their shares have been tanking [digitalconnectmag.com]. I can tell you I will NOT buy a VAIO again and I wished there were some sort of AMAZON store for laptops with a similar "rating and comments" system where I could put this experience up.
If you are thinking of buying a VAIO... DON'T.
Re:Sony has officially gone bananas. (Score:2)
There is an easy work around, just use one slot. Also, there is no service fee to check out the notebook; there is a minimum fee to get the notebok repaired. If you are not willing to pay the aprox. $300, then don't bother sending it in. But, If it is more, than you can get it sent back at no charge.
Re:Sony has officially gone bananas. (Score:2)
Re:Sony has officially gone bananas. (Score:2)
Re:Sony has officially gone bananas. (Score:2)
Say that again? (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry, I don't mean to be the grammar-police on Monday morning, but that's just plain terrible.
I'll translate:
Since it's highly doubtful that Sony can permit 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.
Mod parent up (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Say that again? (Score:2)
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 submitter clearly pulled this text straight from Lik-Sang's English website. Can you see that I am serious?!??
s/permit/prevent (Score:2)
In conclusion, never rely solely on Babelfish when trying to write something in a foreign language.
My Firefox isn't working... (Score:5, Funny)
Is there a setting I missed?
Re:My Firefox isn't working... (Score:2)
Re:My Firefox isn't working... (Score:2, Interesting)
English (Score:2, Funny)
(apparently not)
Does Lik-Sang have the resources to fight this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Nonsense lawsuits are only shown to be nonsense lawsuits after lots and lots of money is spent.
I have no idea how big Lik-Sang is, I just bought a GBA transfer cable from them awhile back once. For legitimate purposes, honest!
Re:Does Lik-Sang have the resources to fight this? (Score:2)
Re:Does Lik-Sang have the resources to fight this? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Region Codes (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Region Codes (Score:2, Interesting)
If you're going to get upset about the lack of free trade, I suggest you concentrate your efforts in areas like agriculture, raw materials and the draconian so called free trade agreements the West is making with Africa, South America and parts of Asia, rather than whine about how you have to spend more of your allowence to play games or movies.
Re:Region Codes (Score:2)
If Sony licenses a song, or a character, or something for use with any of their games, that IP could have a regional license that says that they can use that IP only in certainly countries.
And this goes for any game company- Nintendo, Sega, EA, and even MS and Sony.
Re:Region Codes (Score:2)
Free trade (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Region Codes (Score:2)
Region coding is an idea dreamed up by huge corporations looking for easy money.
Politicians get elected using bribes from the large corporations.
Is it really that hard to see why region coding and free trade can coexist?
Re:Region Codes (Score:2)
I thought that all DVD players had to be region-free, or at least that manufacturers had to provide a region-free solution for any consumer who requested it.
I know that the ruling was what enabled me (in the US) to region-hack my Panasonic player; I got my hands on a copy of the 'unlock' disc that Panasonic was legally obligated to make availa
Re:Region Codes (Score:2)
Constant Target (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Constant Target (Score:2)
[Programming for the Game Boy Advance is] kinda like programming for a 286 with VGA, only not as peppy
Then you must not be using tile mode or sprites. You can make a 2D engine decidedly peppy with the GBA's 2D acceleration hardware.
and with assembler that feels suspiciously like it's made entirely of round holes
What's so bad about ARM assembly language, especially compared to x86?
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you! (Score:2)
I had a friend who just got back from Japan after spending two years there. He enjoys anime and his PSP which is Japanese. He can't use any American UMD movies and he's a little pissed about that. He puts anime he downloads onto Memory Sticks. He said to me, "As long as it's not rele
It is not cheaper to import to the UK... (Score:5, Informative)
It is not cheaper to import to the UK. While the price at Lik-Sang for a PSP minus shipping is cheaper than what the UK PSP price will be, you will always get charged import tax plus. Customs seem to know Lik-Sang and they always slap on the import tax. Plus the courier e.g. UPS, DHL et al always put a surcharge on top of the tax because they pay the tax for you at customes and then demand a cheque when they arrive at your door.
So overall it comes out to be more expensive to import by about £20 or so. Still, if importing annoys Sony then I'm all for it, since I don't see why they should be allowed to dictate who can and cannot sell PSPs, it's just a monopoly.
Re:It is not cheaper to import to the UK... (Score:2)
I bought a GBA cartridge thing... the item was £100. Customs decided it was worth more than that added another £50 to it. UPS then decided it was worth some more and added another £50 'handling fee'.
UPS guy turns up at my door and demands £100 cash for this thing I've already paid for. I told him to fuck off, naturally...
Lik sang refused a refund *and* kept the item. They even sent a pissy email daring us to do anything about it... hardly pr
Re:It is not cheaper to import to the UK... (Score:2)
Re:It is not cheaper to import to the UK... (Score:2)
Re:It is not cheaper to import to the UK... (Score:2, Informative)
Fiction. (Score:2, Insightful)
"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.
Re:Fiction. (Score:2)
Re:Fiction. (Score:2)
On a £180 device it'll be around £50.
Re:Fiction. (Score:2)
Global market (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Global market (Score:2)
they're acting like illegal monopolies.
why people continue to buy their shit is beyond me.
stop supporting these assholes with your money.
Adjusting for typo... (Score:5, Interesting)
It is true, the sales themselves cannot be stopped. However, as UK importers have learned recently to their chagrin, you selling them can be stopped. All Sony has to do is claim that you are using their trademark on the term "PSP" without their permission, and you'll be forced to sell "popular black handheld video game unit from a major manufacturer of electronic devices," something that just doesn't get many hits in a search engine.
Re:Adjusting for typo... (Score:2)
Greed (Score:5, Insightful)
Boo Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Boo Sony (Score:3, Insightful)
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 s
Re:Boo Sony (Score:2)
Sure. Here's two.
- Localization for the 5 major European languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian and German), and support for any others (Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Norweigan, Russian, etc, etc). Despite what you might think, these take time.
- Sony's couldn't manufacture PSPs fast enough to support all three markets at the same time.
Who cares (Score:3, Insightful)
Untill then go back to pulling tricks like this and even the Sony fanboys will hate you
Re:Who cares (Score:2)
Re:Who cares (Score:4, Interesting)
The PSP is a Jaguar overpriced, flashy, and not too practical, the DS is a VW, a little cramped but cheap, reliable and has great gas mileage.
Re:Who cares (Score:2)
A Jaguar, [albersdoerfer.de] huh? I thought those disappeared years ago. I didn't think they were very flashy, either.
</sarcasm>
Re:Who cares (Score:2)
More of a problem for Sony (Score:4, Insightful)
Lik-Sang FTW.
Playstation Portable? (Score:5, Funny)
See Tesco Levi case (Score:2)
Re:See Tesco Levi case (Score:2)
No Sympathy (Score:5, Interesting)
Leave it to them to decide not to bring a game to the US and then complain whenever people from the US import it from Japan or Europe, saying that we're making them lose money.
We're buying their product. At a higher price than normal. And WE get bitched at?! Why should I have to wait a year or more for a game if I can read Japanese and want to play it when it comes out in Japan?
Why should I have to import a DVD player if I move to Japan or Europe? Oh, I know. So that they can make more money by locking out entire continents.
In retrospect, I still have no sympathy. And I'm actually surprised that the US doesn't have 5 region codes.
Re:No Sympathy (Score:2)
if you go to your local brick and mortar and decided to buy a high priced high margin item and the owner told you to fuck off.... you'd be back the next day to give more money to the store?
how about WAKE THE FUCK UP!!
Simple: (Score:3, Insightful)
--
Arkan
Brilliant! (Score:3, Funny)
Allow me to be the first to congratulate the article submitter on his clever literary device: the writeup itself reads like a poorly-translated Japanese video game. Highly apropos!
Re:Brilliant! (Score:2)
What, did you train at the Montgomery Burns school of tact? Or, do you think introducing words you learned from manp
Real issue is pricing (and profits) (Score:2)
The real issue here is money. Why is Sony suing Lik-Sang? It's because Japanese PSPs are much cheaper than American or European PSPs (if they've even come out in Europe) while being practically the exact same product.
Sony sells the Japanese PSP for 20790 Yen after tax in Japan which is equivalent to 186.11 dollars (source Google). Sony sells the US PSP for 249.99 before tax. This means that Lik-Sang makes 63.88 dollars on each PSP they sell minus shipping if they bought these PSPs at retail.
Obviou
Trademark violation ? (Score:2)
If that is the case, why aren't they going after Game, Dixons and HMV, all of which have adverts prominently displayed in their stores advertising the PSP with images ?
Why can they use their
Why sony are doing this (Score:2)
Sony have lost the wow factor for the launch. Instead of the mass stampede down to the shops that they need, not just for UK sales figures but also for marketting / mindshare purposes, they're going to get significantly fewer sales. This
Re:Please Remember (Score:4, Funny)
everytime you buy from sony, the RIAA and MPAA extend the copyright on kittens.
Re:Please Remember (Score:2)
Every time you make a joke about corporate misbehavior, some tired hack with nothing worth saying will extend the RIAA and MPAA onto a joke about kittens.
Re:I won't be buying one imported or not (Free Fio (Score:2)