[baqai]

My hatered towards sony is growing second by second instead of day by day now ... i freaking hate them more than anything in this world ...

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

[rainless]

I hate coconuts... really... REALLY hate coconuts.

[blueswitch]

Sony chill out...just because nobody wants your sorry PSP..and DS is kicking your bluray shoving, battery burning, buttocks

[FudgeNuggets]

So the WHOLE company with a multitude of products is shut down due to selling that piece of crap PSP? Why not just force them to stop selling the PSP? Sony is getting such consumer backlash that their reputation may be forever soiled. These guys make the US Government and Microsoft look like angels. geez. I'm going to go buy a couple of Vaios, charge up the batteries, stick them in my shed and fold on them until they burn it down and then sue Sony for arson.

[Oni]

That really sucks. I really liked Lik-Sang. They usually had the stuff that was either incredibly hard to get or incredibly expensive, usually for a far more reasonable price than most.

A friend of mine got his RedOctane DDR Hardpad from there. I was planning on picking up a few things from there for my Wii when I get it.

Thanks, Sony. You have once again saved the world from tyrrany and opression. Don't worry. I know deep down inside you made those batteries explode so you might just kill an terrorist in a cave somewhere. I know you put that rootkit on those CDs just so you could monitor for shifty terrorist activity when they played their favourite Celine Dion CD . . .

You suck. Find a disease and crawl into bed with it.

[Mr.Guvernment]

Sony or not, if it was not legal for them to sell PSP' out of country, they deserve what they got.

[Oni]

Oh, of course. 'cause offering hundreds of products that aren't even owned by Sony, allowing people to experience import games and systems that aren't Sony-based or owned, and offering equipment that either isn't available or only available at outrageous prices, and then robbing people of that priveledge is exactly what they deserved.



All the big bad S had to do was give them a cease and desist regarding Sony products. Now they've robbed gamers the world over of hundreds of products that other companies had no problem w/ them offering.

5 gil says that www.play-asia.com is next

[rainless]

Oh come now... Next you'll all be telling me Nintendo and MICRO$OFT never sued anyone...

I was pretty ****ed when microsoft bought the studio that makes Halo, because I knew it would mean fewer PC games from them. They also (and I'm a writer) ran WordPerfect out of business... and the first half of my 2003 book was written in WordPerfect. I had to switch to word because none of the publishing firms were using it anymore... Sigh... That still stings.

[Oni]

I was upset when MS bought Bungie, too, 'cause that meant that Oni II would either never be released, or only released as an Xbox exclusive. Instead, we get Halo. Neverending waves of Halo. Wonderful.

However, it's not MS and Nintendo we're dealing with here. It's Sony. Give them a gun and point it at the competition and they STILL manage to shoot themselves in the foot with it. They've upset people a lot over the last year or so. First the rootkit, then the batteries, then PS3 delays, now shutting down one of the largest sites on the internet for imports and other gaming related gadgets. Remember, this wasn't a simple cease and desist, this was a 'we're shutting you down, there is nothing you can do about it'. They've screwed us gamers up for quite long enough thank you.

[TheGreySpectre]

Lik-sang had some really nice adapters and was a great place to get stuff like ddr pads.

no one ever said microsoft or anything never sued anyone most of the time we get worked up about those issues to.

I am still confused as to why it was illegal for them to sell them out of the country.

As to got what they deserved, I think not, if it was Illegal I think an order to stop selling PSPs and a fine would have been more appropiate as opposed to annihilating the buisness

[rainless]

Originally Posted by Oni

I was upset when MS bought Bungie, too, 'cause that meant that Oni II would either never be released, or only released as an Xbox exclusive. Instead, we get Halo. Neverending waves of Halo. Wonderful.

However, it's not MS and Nintendo we're dealing with here. It's Sony. Give them a gun and point it at the competition and they STILL manage to shoot themselves in the foot with it. They've upset people a lot over the last year or so. First the rootkit, then the batteries, then PS3 delays, now shutting down one of the largest sites on the internet for imports and other gaming related gadgets. Remember, this wasn't a simple cease and desist, this was a 'we're shutting you down, there is nothing you can do about it'. They've screwed us gamers up for quite long enough thank you.

Well this is where heated emotions cloud the facts. Sony... based upon what I read on that website... did NOT shut down Liksang (the title of this thread is misleading), they merely sued them. Lawsuits happen all the time. The EU (where I'm living now) just sued the HELL out of Microsoft and won. Microsoft isn't shutting down. You'll say that isn't a fair comparison, but the simple fact of the matter is that, if Liksang was in the right, then they could have had the suit thrown out of court. If they weren't doing anything illegal then they wouldn't even have had to spend a single day in the courtroom.

But they KNEW they were in the wrong, and THEY decided to shut down. I read the title and I was under the impression some video game publisher that Sony co-owned had been shut down.

That's not what happened at all.

Edit: According to this quote... Sony only won a lawsuit barring Liksang from selling PSP consoles. This should have had NOTHING to do with the rest of their businesss:

Hong Kong, October 24th of 2006 - 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.

[Tumnus]

Lik-Sang was a great site. Honestly, I'm kind of outraged by this. It does certainly seem that they were in the wrong, but don't act like it doesn't make any of you Lik-Sang fans angry!

[FudgeNuggets]

Originally Posted by Oni

I was upset when MS bought Bungie, too, 'cause that meant that Oni II would either never be released, or only released as an Xbox exclusive. Instead, we get Halo. Neverending waves of Halo. Wonderful.

However, it's not MS and Nintendo we're dealing with here. It's Sony. Give them a gun and point it at the competition and they STILL manage to shoot themselves in the foot with it. They've upset people a lot over the last year or so. First the rootkit, then the batteries, then PS3 delays, now shutting down one of the largest sites on the internet for imports and other gaming related gadgets. Remember, this wasn't a simple cease and desist, this was a 'we're shutting you down, there is nothing you can do about it'. They've screwed us gamers up for quite long enough thank you.

Don't forget that a lot of people are not happy about the Betam...errrrr I mean BluRay situation either.

Also, Rainless Lik-Sang was not a multi-billion dollar company like MS, Sony or whoever.... They couldn't afford to fight them. Sony wouldn't have DARED to pull this crap with Wal-Mart.

[Elif Tymes]

Rain: Even if you're in the right, if you can't pay the cost to fight you lose. Period.

They couldn't afford a fancy lawyer, or anything like that, as soon as Sony gets their foot in the door with legal action and wins a case against them, who knows what will follow?

[Oni]

Originally Posted by rainless

Well this is where heated emotions cloud the facts. Sony... based upon what I read on that website... did NOT shut down Liksang (the title of this thread is misleading), they merely sued them. Lawsuits happen all the time. The EU (where I'm living now) just sued the HELL out of Microsoft and won. Microsoft isn't shutting down. You'll say that isn't a fair comparison, but the simple fact of the matter is that, if Liksang was in the right, then they could have had the suit thrown out of court. If they weren't doing anything illegal then they wouldn't even have had to spend a single day in the courtroom.

But they KNEW they were in the wrong, and THEY decided to shut down. I read the title and I was under the impression some video game publisher that Sony co-owned had been shut down.

That's not what happened at all.

Edit: According to this quote... Sony only won a lawsuit barring Liksang from selling PSP consoles. This should have had NOTHING to do with the rest of their businesss:

Hong Kong, October 24th of 2006 - 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.

The EU suing MS analogy is wrong, plain and simple. You cannot compare the two. Yes, MS is still in business after being sued by the EU. Do you know why they are still in business? 'cause they have more money than they know what to do with.

Lik-Sang isn't MS. They clearly do not have the money at their disposal that MS does. They don't have access to the best lawyers available like MS does. They don't have the government influences that MS does, and they can't throw money at a problem until it goes away, like MS can. They are a smallish company. The fact that this lawsuit put them under is clearly no surprise. Your comparison is faulty at best.

They still would have had to enter a courtroom, and you can't fight against somebody like Sony without first hiring a legal team and getting proper councel. Those things cost money. That, coupled with the fact that no matter what, you're most definately going to lose against Sony, it would be easier to close up shop, which hurts everybody involved. If they can't get you this time, they'll find something else, and something else and eventually grind you into the floor. If Lik-sang had managed to bounce this lawsuit, Sony would eventually find something else to sue them over. They'd get them eventually.

It was also not until the judgement was handed down from the High Court judge that this was deemed unlawful. If they were operating in an illegal capacity for so long, why were no charges or lawsuits brought on by anybody else at an earlier time? They sold all kinds of stuff, from Nintendo, Microsoft and others, too. Why did neither Nintendo nor Microsoft stop these sales? If it was so terribly unlawful, somebody should've done something earlier, wouldn't you say?

You've also seemed to have ignored the 2nd last paragraph. Here, I'll quote it for you:

From Lik-Sang's Press Release
Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe's very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan's official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). 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.

(My emphasis)

Their own damn people bought stuff from there! Now, again, if what Lik-sang was doing was so terribly illegal, why did Sony's own people (and not just grunts working in the factories. Higher-ups. We're talking the big money and decision makers here) get their Sony hardware and software from a site that is doing something illegal? You'd think that higher-ups would be the first whistle blowers, rather than buyers from this site.

I don't know why Sony really wanted them shut down, all I know is that now they have been shut down. And like I said earlier, 5 gil says that www.play-asia.com is next.

[rainless]

Originally Posted by Oni

The EU suing MS analogy is wrong, plain and simple. You cannot compare the two. Yes, MS is still in business after being sued by the EU. Do you know why they are still in business? 'cause they have more money than they know what to do with.

Lik-Sang isn't MS. They clearly do not have the money at their disposal that MS does. They don't have access to the best lawyers available like MS does. They don't have the government influences that MS does, and they can't throw money at a problem until it goes away, like MS can. They are a smallish company. The fact that this lawsuit put them under is clearly no surprise. Your comparison is faulty at best.

They still would have had to enter a courtroom, and you can't fight against somebody like Sony without first hiring a legal team and getting proper councel. Those things cost money. That, coupled with the fact that no matter what, you're most definately going to lose against Sony, it would be easier to close up shop, which hurts everybody involved. If they can't get you this time, they'll find something else, and something else and eventually grind you into the floor. If Lik-sang had managed to bounce this lawsuit, Sony would eventually find something else to sue them over. They'd get them eventually.

It was also not until the judgement was handed down from the High Court judge that this was deemed unlawful. If they were operating in an illegal capacity for so long, why were no charges or lawsuits brought on by anybody else at an earlier time? They sold all kinds of stuff, from Nintendo, Microsoft and others, too. Why did neither Nintendo nor Microsoft stop these sales? If it was so terribly unlawful, somebody should've done something earlier, wouldn't you say?

You've also seemed to have ignored the 2nd last paragraph. Here, I'll quote it for you:


(My emphasis)

Their own damn people bought stuff from there! Now, again, if what Lik-sang was doing was so terribly illegal, why did Sony's own people (and not just grunts working in the factories. Higher-ups. We're talking the big money and decision makers here) get their Sony hardware and software from a site that is doing something illegal? You'd think that higher-ups would be the first whistle blowers, rather than buyers from this site.

I don't know why Sony really wanted them shut down, all I know is that now they have been shut down. And like I said earlier, 5 gil says that www.play-asia.com is next.

Again... you're casually tip-toeing over the facts. Maybe I can be a bit more objective because I've never even heard of Lik-sang before (and since I don't live in America I'm forced to do a HELL of a lot of importing), but once again all Sony managed to do was WIN A CASE TO STOP THEM FROM SELLING PSP CONSOLES.

Now how is that putting them out of business? They could be selling Wiis in a month to help cover the costs, so I don't see where you draw that analogy. And I'm not trying to make Sony seem like angels, they're corporate ******** just like Microsoft and Nintendo who wouldn't **ss on you if one of their consoles took your head off and set your place on fire unless public opinion turned against them. But you tell me what the fact that these corporate heads ordered PSPs from Lik Sang has to do with the fact that Lik Sang selling them was illegal?

It's obviously not illegal to BUY PSPs... Sony isn't going after any Lik Sang customers. That was just a parting cheap shot to garner more sympathy.

But my cheif question remains unanswered: Why, if Sony only won a case stopping them from selling PSP consoles, did Lik Sang close?

Also, Lik Sang might now be MS, but they sure as hell weren't a Ma and Pa grocery store either now were they? According to the site (and this was news to me) they were the leading seller of import games on the Net. So, suffice to say, they had at least SOME operating revenue. Which once again begs the question: Why, if Sony only won a case stopping them from selling PSP consoles, did Like Sang close? (I'm not cutting and pasting either... I'm typing that every time in an effort to drive some energy through the question.)

It's kind of a mystery to me. Holiday season is coming up. Wii's and 360s are coming out. DS was selling better anyway. They stand to make a killing this holiday season... even just by selling out all the stock they already have. Without investing another dime, just by taking peoples money and shipping what they have out. Even if they didn't recoup all their legal losses that way they'd have enough to buy more stock and keep going. I just chose MS because it was the first thing that popped in my head. What about OLGA? They've been sued time and again by EMI, the Harry Fox Agency, and conglomerates that have a LOT more money than Sony, and they're just a non-profit guitar tab site. Their closed at the moment, but I've been getting my music from them for YEARS. Harry Fox had them closed for four months, I thought it was over, but they eventually won their case and were back. Ditto with EMI. I forget who's suing them now, but they don't have a SINGLE AD on their site. They are making ZERO dollars. None of their music is stolen from existing tab books, it's just users uploading their INTERPRETATIONS of these songs. So the judges are forced to throw it out of court every single time, and eventually OLGA comes back. I gaurandamntee you they have less money to fight suits than Lik Sang. But they've been in the right.

So I ask you, for the charm: Why, if Sony ONLY won a case stopping them from selling PSP consoles, did Lik Sang close?

[OC Noob]

Originally Posted by rainless

Again... you're casually tip-toeing over the facts. Maybe I can be a bit more objective because I've never even heard of Lik-sang before (and since I don't live in America I'm forced to do a HELL of a lot of importing), but once again all Sony managed to do was WIN A CASE TO STOP THEM FROM SELLING PSP CONSOLES.

Now how is that putting them out of business? They could be selling Wiis in a month to help cover the costs, so I don't see where you draw that analogy. And I'm not trying to make Sony seem like angels, they're corporate ******** just like Microsoft and Nintendo who wouldn't **ss on you if one of their consoles took your head off and set your place on fire unless public opinion turned against them. But you tell me what the fact that these corporate heads ordered PSPs from Lik Sang has to do with the fact that Lik Sang selling them was illegal?

It's obviously not illegal to BUY PSPs... Sony isn't going after any Lik Sang customers. That was just a parting cheap shot to garner more sympathy.

But my cheif question remains unanswered: Why, if Sony only won a case stopping them from selling PSP consoles, did Lik Sang close?

Also, Lik Sang might now be MS, but they sure as hell weren't a Ma and Pa grocery store either now were they? According to the site (and this was news to me) they were the leading seller of import games on the Net. So, suffice to say, they had at least SOME operating revenue. Which once again begs the question: Why, if Sony only won a case stopping them from selling PSP consoles, did Like Sang close? (I'm not cutting and pasting either... I'm typing that every time in an effort to drive some energy through the question.)

It's kind of a mystery to me. Holiday season is coming up. Wii's and 360s are coming out. DS was selling better anyway. They stand to make a killing this holiday season... even just by selling out all the stock they already have. Without investing another dime, just by taking peoples money and shipping what they have out. Even if they didn't recoup all their legal losses that way they'd have enough to buy more stock and keep going. I just chose MS because it was the first thing that popped in my head. What about OLGA? They've been sued time and again by EMI, the Harry Fox Agency, and conglomerates that have a LOT more money than Sony, and they're just a non-profit guitar tab site. Their closed at the moment, but I've been getting my music from them for YEARS. Harry Fox had them closed for four months, I thought it was over, but they eventually won their case and were back. Ditto with EMI. I forget who's suing them now, but they don't have a SINGLE AD on their site. They are making ZERO dollars. None of their music is stolen from existing tab books, it's just users uploading their INTERPRETATIONS of these songs. So the judges are forced to throw it out of court every single time, and eventually OLGA comes back. I gaurandamntee you they have less money to fight suits than Lik Sang. But they've been in the right.

So I ask you, for the charm: Why, if Sony ONLY won a case stopping them from selling PSP consoles, did Lik Sang close?

I'll tell you why. Its because stealing games via torrents or romz is wrong, but breaking the law in any other manner should go unpunished.

[rainless]

Originally Posted by OC Noob

I'll tell you why. Its because stealing games via torrents or romz is wrong, but breaking the law in any other manner should go unpunished.

Dude if they were NINJA they wouldn't have all these problems... They would sell and ship by night and slide the receipt under your door without leaving a footprint.

[OC Noob]

Originally Posted by rainless

Dude if they were NINJA they wouldn't have all these problems... They would sell and ship by night and slide the receipt under your door without leaving a footprint.

And they would throw UMD's like chinesse throwing stars decimating their highly paid team of lawyers. And disapear into the shadows... or the starbucks.

[TheGreySpectre]

why would is it illegal to export consoles if they meet all the saftey regulations?