ats:
"Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc."
"Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful."
There's also a BBC story, heavily biased toward Sony.
This is, needless to say, ridiculous. The law's meant to be there to stop this sort of unreasonable restraint of trade, not to support it.
It's sort of hard to understand why Sony would want to do this -- surely getting their products into the hands of consumers is only going to create more demand for them?
It's not like Lik-Sang are going to be able to undercut Sony when they do start importing them (that is, unless Sony's intent is to price the consoles far above their actual value, which seems unlikely).
Is this just about control -- Sony don't want another company making money by reselling their products, which is patently ridiculous given that that's how the vast majority of Sony equipment is sold?
The reasons given in the BBC article are obvious lies -- of course the products conform to safety standards, else they wouldn't be able to sell them elsewhere in the world, and people paying a premium to import the consoles don't care that they're region-locked to where they came from.
(They ought to, of course, but unfortunately nobody seems to care about that particular illegal-restraint-of-trade issue other than me.)
Anyway, Sony aren't coming off my boycott list any time soon...
ats: "Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc."
"Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful."
There's also a BBC story, heavily biased toward Sony.
This is, needless to say, ridiculous. The law's meant to be there to stop this sort of unreasonable restraint of trade, not to support it.
It's sort of hard to understand why Sony would want to do this -- surely getting their products into the hands of consumers is only going to create more demand for them?
It's not like Lik-Sang are going to be able to undercut Sony when they do start importing them (that is, unless Sony's intent is to price the consoles far above their actual value, which seems unlikely).
Is this just about control -- Sony don't want another company making money by reselling their products, which is patently ridiculous given that that's how the vast majority of Sony equipment is sold?
The reasons given in the BBC article are obvious lies -- of course the products conform to safety standards, else they wouldn't be able to sell them elsewhere in the world, and people paying a premium to import the consoles don't care that they're region-locked to where they came from.
(They ought to, of course, but unfortunately nobody seems to care about that particular illegal-restraint-of-trade issue other than me.)
Anyway, Sony aren't coming off my boycott list any time soon...