Sony PlayStation 3 Imports Temporarily Banned In Europe 97
tekgoblin writes "Looks like Sony is in some trouble in Europe. LG recently complained about Sony and filed a US patent dispute over their Blu-ray technology. Now they have been granted a preliminary injunction in the matter in Europe. This injunction prevents the PlayStation 3 from currently being imported to Europe. For at least the next 10 days, every PlayStation that is imported will be seized by government officials."
Hey Sony? (Score:5, Insightful)
Karma, much? Your tight grip of copyright and patents are biting you in the ass now.
Re:HAHAHAHAHA!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
Agreed.
If anybody from Sony reads this: GO FUCK YOURSELF.
Re:Hey Sony? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, but they altered the deal. Pray they don't alter it any further.
The patent system is just a bag of hurt (Score:5, Insightful)
Patents now last so long and have been around for so long that you can't build anything anymore without using someone elses invention. Ever heard of "If I seen furthest, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants"? Well, with the patent system that is, "If I sold the most gadgets it is because I paid off everyone else".
Worse, once patents were real physical products that had to be specific enough to make an actual product from them, you could LOOK at a patent and work around it. But now that concepts have become valid patents, you can't. So rather then a screw being patented, the very idea of fixing to things together is patented so it doesn't matter if you come up with completely new system for doing it, a better system, a more efficient system, you are STILL infringing. EXACTLY what the patent system was NOT supposed to do. It was supposed to encourage invention. Patent on the diesel engine? Make a petrol engine. A LOT of combustion engine tech early on was developed to get around patents, so we got lots of different engines and the market could then pick the most efficient for their use.
Sony and others are however so tied to the current patent system they cannot let it go even if it is killing them. Why not? Without the patent system, Sony would be Sony'ed. What is that? Sony was once a toy maker from Japan. Making crap copies cheaply before SLOWLY improving them. Well, if you call the re-creation of the Japanese economy post WW2 slow.
A complex patent system favors the big companies who can use their patent portfolio as weapons. Remove it, and ANYONE can compete. You wouldn't have needed a billion dollar company to launch a new phone OS, a couple of hackers could have done it. The billions of Google are not for development cost, but legal team costs.
The patent system needs reform but the mayor players are all so indebt to it, that it would take an outsider to break it up. Maybe China can do it. They gain nothing from the patent system and if Western society continues to collapse (not actually building anything anymore except patents) then China might loose interest in pretending to obey the system.
Something needs to change before all progress is gone to countries where you can still spend more money on development then on lawyers.
Re:Hey Sony? (Score:5, Insightful)
> hackers who want to do different things to the console than what Sony intended
and: purchasers who want to do what was advertised by sony at purchase, i.e. run linux
and I don`t give a rat`s ass about what sony intends, I expect to own what I buy.