Importing consoles and how to shut lik-sang

[Shifty Geezer]

What about Ebay? They can't possibly be dishing out cash to every company in the world whose goods get advertised on their site. Do used car dealers have to pay every single car company to be able to advertise that they've got their cars on the lot? I somehow doubt all those used book sellers on abebooks.com are floating every single publisher in existence cash to be able to publicize the listings of books they have for sale.

No, because companies generally let retailers advertise their products, the option is always there to refuse a company to use your trademark. If Random House choose, they could stop abebooks.com from listing their products. But in those cases, why supply abebooks stock in the first place?!

Its the same laws that stop a game using Mario in it without Nintendo's consent. Mario is a trade identity controlled by the creator company. Similarly you have companies being referenced in works of literary fiction who tell the authors to remove references to them. Sometimes they don't mind as it's free publicity, and sometimes they don't want their product identity associated with the book. You don't have to ask their permission, but if you don't for whatever reason, they can tell you to 'cease and desist'.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I'm biased towards Sony.

I quess honesty counts for something...
(however obvious it might be)
I just don't like bias very much.

 

[Corwin_B]

Well the point is still that Sony was hardly the only one after them.

2002. Mod chips. All 3 companies. Apart from the word "lawsuit", there is not much in common. Oh, well, the fanb0ys have to cling to something, right ?

Oh I'm sure its cute. I have admitted long time ago already that I'm biased towards Sony but I don't count other consoles out from my view, unlike others.

And that's supposed to be better ?

 

[-tkf-]

It's so hypocritical the way these big multinational corporations use the "global market" to their own advantage when it comes to making stuff as cheaply as possible before shipping it all over the world, but spends a lot of time and money denying their customers the same access to the global market for the customer's advantage.

They use the laws to boost profits as much as possible.

The problems starts with the politicians we elected, Sony and every big company for that matter does this to make more money. If we were to boycot this we should all walk naked and stop using electronic gizmos.

 

[Sankari]

2002. Mod chips. All 3 companies. Apart from the word "lawsuit", there is not much in common. Oh, well, the fanb0ys have to cling to something, right ?

Don't call people Fanb0ys, it makes you look immature. If I'm biased towards Sony, it doesn't make me an fanb0y. I like Xbox360 alot actually what it is offering all the good titles that are coming to it, but I guess if I don't praise Xbox360 and diss Sony, I guess Its not right in the internet we are surfing today.

Are you expecting me to flame Xbox360 or Wii? Would it make you feel any better if I had both of these machines with my PS3? Well you have something to look forward to. In few years I'll most definately own both PS3 and Xbox360, Wii doesn't interest me as much though.

2002 or not, it still proves that all the companies were after Lik-sang, Lik-sang had the chance to stop when Sony warned them multiple times but they decided to do nothing. Its theyr own fault for this happening. Sony has potential to lose quite a bit of money with these imports especially with the price drop in Japan. Good for the consumers that this happened? No. Good for sony? Definately. Say what you say but this ain't crushing my world.

Dr Evil: Well I rather not lie, think what you think, I also love you decided to quote me on something and drop the rest of the line that was pretty crucial for the statement.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The problems starts with the politicians we elected, Sony and every big company for that matter does this to make more money. If we were to boycot this we should all walk naked and stop using electronic gizmos.

Preach on brother!

*throws underwear out the window*

*laments the chilly weather*

 

[London Geezer]

If we were to boycot this we should all walk naked.

YEEEAAAHH!!! BOYCOTT BOYCOTT!!!

VIVE LA REVOLUTION!!!!

 

[inefficient]

I wonder if they are actually declaring bankruptcy in order to pay their new debts to Sony.

Or if they are just closing down to avoid paying anything to Sony and the owners are just running off with whatever cash the company still has.

Probably in China, the law is not too strict on this sort of thing.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Good for the consumers that this happened? No. Good for sony? Definately. Say what you say but this ain't crushing my world.

Dr Evil: Well I rather not lie, think what you think, I also love you decided to quote me on something and drop the rest of the line that was pretty crucial for the statement.

I don't think you should be so light hearted when a company is pissing on it's consumers for it's own (questionable) gain, unless you own their stocks

I quoted what I found to be crucial information in your post, the rest wasn't very interesting, but enough of this it's not like your bias is crushing my world, and neither is the apparent loss of Lik-Sang though I ordered quite a lot of stuff from there, like Hori arcade sticks for PS2 and replacement power supply for my Xbox.

 

[Sankari]

I don't think you should be so light hearted when a company is pissing on it's consumers for it's own (questionable) gain, unless you own their stocks

I quoted what I found to be crucial information in your post, the rest wasn't very interesting, but enough of this it's not like your bias is crushing my world, and neither is the apparent loss of Lik-Sang though I ordered quite a lot of stuff from there, like Hori arcade sticks for PS2 and replacement power supply for my Xbox.

Well this certainly is nothing new, every company is there to make profit, no?

Sony has done alot of things that have pissed people off, only one thing comes to mind that has pissed me off by watching Sony's actions and thats the price of PS3. Why should I care if they are pissing on some companys face as long as its not going to ruin my gaming experience. Lik-sang wasn't part of that so no problem.

If they would be using theyr "Power" to shut down other gaming companies and console makers, then it would piss me off because I don't want monopoly but since this is just one freaking import site, I don't get whats the big deal. Yes, people used it, it was cheap yadayada. Look for another service and perhaps they will be smarter to actually listen when they are warned.

 

[PARANOiA]

I'm still fuming some 12 hours later or so.

As an FYI for gadget nuts, I've used www.play-asia.com for adapters, etc for quite a while as a lik-sang alternative. I've had no problems from a few purchases, such as the DC component cable, XBox component cable, and Xbox to PC USB adapter cable.

Anyway, how can anyone who is a consumer rightly defend this? This is creating an artificial barrier to increase demand. It's the equivalent in my head of DVD regions - not illegal, but not legally enforcable either. How exactly did this make it through court anyway?

On a completely unrelated sidenote, has anyone else noted the Lucasarts case against Diesel Sweeties? What another load of nonsense and bullshit. Bleh.

 

[valioso]

How exactly did this make it through court anyway?

because Lik sang did not contest the accusations in court.. so basically sony won by default.

 

[inefficient]

At least there are alternatives. And I would think it's likely that someone else will step in to take their place - market forces being what they are and all. It technically should be possible to run this type of business without breaking international laws. Lik-sang was just not careful.

It seems like when they kept exporting PSP hardware, even after Sony asked them to stop, they made a big mistake, and it cost them.

That part where they reveal the names of Sony executives that used their Store is a little frightening. Intentionally revealing customer information like is a criminal offense in many parts of the world. If this didn't happen in China someone could end up doing jail time for that.

 

[pso]

because Lik sang did not contest the accusations in court.. so basically sony won by default.

It wouldn't matter if Lik-sang had lawyers. Sony would have stalled long enough until Lik-sang ran out of money.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It wouldn't matter if Lik-sang had lawyers. Sony would have stalled long enough until Lik-sang ran out of money.

Lik-Sang weren't paying Sony anything, so how were they going to run out of money?

 

[London Geezer]

I was trying to understand that myself. I mean, they wouldn't have had lawyers to pay, Sony would have stalled, LS would have kept on doing their thing......... I don't see how they could have just finished their money.

 

[pso]

Lik-Sang weren't paying Sony anything, so how were they going to run out of money?

I meant if Lik-sang had contested the accusations in court. They would need lawyers right? Sony won by default because Lik-sang didn't even have representation IIRC.

 

[DJ12]

I know it's probably 90% of what they sell, but wouldn't it be easier to just stop selling the things Sony doesn't want them to and carry on going on a much smaller scale?

If you ask me the biggest problem isn't Sony taking legal action it's the massive loss of earnings they'd suffer as a result.

 

[pipo]

Lik-Sang weren't paying Sony anything, so how were they going to run out of money?

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=14232

Today Lik-Sang's former marketing manager Pascal Clarysse struck back at Sony, stating that Sony's denial "must probably be cynical sarcasm on their behalf," and that "Sony's claim that Lik-Sang didn't turn up and therefore incurred no legal cost is absolute nonsense."

Below you will find the full statement, which Clarysse said would be his final words for the retailer because the company is now terminating his contract.

 

[Diamond.G]

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=14232

Wow, just wow. I am kinda speechless if what he said is true. I understand the need to protect the Playstation brand, but isn't what Sony did a little bit excessive? I got my PSP from toysnjoys (cause I am here in hawaii where they are based) and didn't look into getting one from playasia or lik-sang. Was playasia selling the PSP to Europeans at the same time? And if so did Sony tell them to stop (and did they)?