Lik-sang.com shut down due to Sony lawsuits

I've been pretty unhappy with a lot of Sony decisions lately; here's another one. Sony has filed enough lawsuits to effectively bury Lik-sang.com, which I thought was pretty decent business.

http://www.lik-sang.com/news.php?artc=3901

 

Well i've already made up my mind to say "f**k you!" to Sony and not even want a PS3 for ebay anymore.

 

This pisses me off alot. It's also due to SCEE fault in the first place.
1) Shipping late (NA had TOO MANY UNITS!!!)
2) Over pricing the unit.

ARGGGG.. This part is the most interesting part of the article.

The list of PSP related Sony Europe orders reads like the who's who of the videogames industry, and includes Ray Maguire (Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Alan Duncan (UK Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Chris Sorrell (Creative Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Rob Parkin (Development Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited), just to name a few.

 

they re trying to drain Lik-sang dry of money. Haven't they got better things to do?like make a proper console and a decent launch line-up instead of pissing people off?

 

Very disappointing. So much for a free market economy. Nice to see it was SCEE in the UK that caused this. They're still determined to see the UK charged 30% more for SCE products released months after the rest of the world.

 

bah, that sucks so hard, FUCK OFF YOU BIRTY BASTARDS @ SONY

Oops, that had to be said. Well, another reason against the PSP, PS3 and so on

 

governments are just legitimate mafias, as court orders such as this one shows. The world lacks freedom, democracy and real capitalism. Shame on Sony

 

Interestingly, YesAsia are still offering PS3 preorders. They're usually the first to comply with the wishes of their suppliers. They did sell PSPs though.

 

Shame on Sony...

That's really disgusting, Hong Kong has always been at the forefront of video games import/export, Hong Kong is not UK anymore. I don't know why UK laws should apply there.

My suggestion, let's start banning Sony subjects on this board. They crossed the line once again by even going against retailers it's plainly stupid, grey imports are only a small portion of the market for Sony. Mainly early adopters would use such channel to get their new systems before everybody else.

My 2 cents: their system is so utterly shit that they don't want anybody to spread the word in Europe. The hardware is simple joke or shall I say a proof of concept as usual.

If they are uncapable to deliver their new systems to the masses when people want it (now) then they should plainly stop to exist as a game company.

They are annoying and not doing any good to the business for the past few years, screw them, I hope they'll go down the drain and looking at their financial situation they are en route to achieve that.

Sabre (angry)

 

sabre470. it has nothing to do with hong kong being an ex-common law jurisdiction, else it would be dealt with at the Privy council, and not a high court

second, the subject of Conflicts of Laws is the one you should look at for when it comes to deciding Forum Conveniens and application of a foreign court's judgements.

Uk has been found to have a real and substantial link with the case and that is why the case was heard in London and not in Hong Kong. One could assume that SONY has done some "forum shopping" in order to get the laws that fits it best. That would be a bit far-fetched though, considering this is a Tort, and the classic rule of Tort (internationaly) is to try the case where it happened.

 

And that too...totally agree with you!!!

 

From what I understand Sony is bringing suit in pretty much every country in the EU. And, if it's anything like the American standard, all they have to do is find proper minimum contacts in each forum to allow suit. Although, again, if it's anything like America, merely selling a product in a particular forum is not adequate for jurisdicion and the entire action will be too burdensome for Lik-Sang to attempt litigation.

 

What can I say apart from yet again Sony pisses me off. God, I wish they'd just vanish of the face of this earth ! Cocky up their own arse Bastards that they are.

Yakumo

 

Sony is a Third country company,so it has to bring a suit in every country it can in order to take a shot at the case. Sony's contractual obligations towards customers is something that the judges like to hear in order to indeed protect the public from defective items etc. Also, don't forget the Tax that you pay for your console is different from the tax that one has to pay importing an item (that many times is priced much lowered in order to avoid the import tax) - all those factors come into consideration. It's not like Lik-sang is your buddy and he's sending you something upon request. Lik-sang, legally at least, is competing with Sony over their own products. This has an effect in every country that Lik-Sang ships to, and as such the Tort "happens" in that particular country.

I must stress, that even in the US, Torts are tried where they happen. It's not like contractual obligations that need the element of a link as such in order to determine the appropriate forum and/or the law that governs the contract.

 

Well paralell-import isn't aloud for years and years for allot of products. Camera's, Televisions, Mobilephone's.... and also console's. Remember the time (around RE:CV us release) when Sega stressed eBay to stop the shipping of US DC games to Europe.

It was just an matter of time to see this happen. Offcource it's an pity for 'us' gamers. But there will always be shops who sell import games/hardware without 'getting busted' (smaller under the radar shops). And offcource you can always buy things from private people on boards, trading sites, auction.. etc etc Sony just has the money to do big lawsuits.

 

Sure, they have an army of lawyer trained to defend their interest and surely they are doing a good job. If only they could put that much efforts into making good systems and games.

Your legal points are very interesting and I'll certainly look into them.

My reaction was immediate and upfront, to the sad reality that a big corporate once again won over a small organisation. The sad truth is that they had to shutdown cause they couldn't bare the legal cost (talk about fairness in a court) to defend themselves. It's just frightening. Are we going to get for selling import stuff new/old on ebay as a next step?

The repercution on Sony regarding PSP/PS3 imports is tiny and in most cases played to the advantages of the vendors and make the system popular (e.g. PC Engine (though NEC used to put a lot of ads in French Magazine urging no to buy PC Engine stuff), Megadrive, Super Famicom, PSX) The whole story about being compliant with europe regulation is a cheap shot but sure did work. It would be stupid for a hardware manufacturer not to design such a device without international standards in mind.

They are protecting their interests sure, it makes sense to a certain extent...

I'm sure Lik-Sang closure won't affect the UK Mass Market, but Sony will definitely loose an audience here.

Sabre

 

Sony can kiss my arse.

 

:Shit: <- DIE SONY

 

I don't know why u guys are pointing the finger at SONY?

SONY made it clear that they would not condone certain forms of pre-launching/import/export/any form of business circumvention.

They made this global contract out to all of the people it supplied, not for fun but for safety in most cases.

I'm only gonna give a few examples, there are many more.

Example U.K based scenario's that could affect anyone:

'We' (U.K peeps) buy a 110vac .Jpn console, we plug it in at home on our 240vac and it blows up, we (falsely) complain that the console was faulty etc.

We buy a .Jpn console, we plug it in at home, it blows up causing a house fire, the house burns down, one of the occupiers dies as a result of smoke inhalation! ...Extreme 'yes' but it does and has happened resulting in thousands of hours and millions of pounds in litigation costs, not to mention the pain it causes to friends and families.

...Of course we could buy one, use a step down transformer (even those this doesnt comply with either SONY's reg's and/or possibly other global/local regs) and be okay...but thats not the point here...SONY is not prepared to take the risk and after all SONY should be allowed to decide situations of this gravity, shouldnt they?

 

Exactly. Liksang violated their contract. They already got hurt badly for selling modded PS2s in the past. I'm sure they will get put back online after some negotiations.