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Did Sony kill Lik-Sang?

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Dela @ Oct 25, 2006 12:49 | 79 comments

Following a ruling earlier this month by the High Court of London, Lik-Sang has declared itself out of business "due to multiple Sony lawsuits". The ruling found that sales of PSPs from Lik-Sang to customers in the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA) are unlawful. The hearing took place on October 9 at the High Court of London, without Lik-Sang's legal representatives attending or arguing at the hearing.

The argument over PSP sales started in August 2005, when Lik-Sang was shipping PSP consoles to the UK and the rest of Europe where it was not available in stores yet. Sony alleged that Lik-Sang advertised the Sony products "in a dishonest manner" and "unlawfully interferes with Sony's economical interests" in a lawsuit in the High Court of Hong Kong.

Sony also filed a lawsuit in the UK for the sale of the PSPs but also went after Lik-Sang for copyright infringement for mirroring the freely available PSP user guides on their servers. Yesterday, Lik-Sang left an article on its website explaining to customers that the company is out of business and that Sony is to blame.

"Today is Sony Europe victory about PSP, tomorrow is Sony Europe's ongoing pressure about PlayStation 3. With this precedent set, next week could already be the stage for complaints from Sony America about the same thing, or from other console manufacturers about other consoles to other regions, or even from any publisher about any specific software title to any country they don't see fit. It's the beginning of the end... of the World as we know it", stated Pascal Clarysse, formerly Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang.com.

"Blame it on Sony. That's the latest dark spot in their shameful track record as gaming industry leader. The Empire finally 'won', few dominating retailers from the UK probably will rejoice the news, but everybody else in the gaming world lost something today." he continued. Lik-Sang will not accept any new orders now and will cancel and refund all existing orders. In its article, Lik-Sang surprised the gaming world by naming Sony executives who have previously purchased PSPs or software for the device from Lik-Sang.

Sony denies responsibility, lashes out at Lik-Sang

In a statement given to GamesIndustry.biz, Sony acknowledged successfully suing Pacific Game Technology, which uses Lik-Sang as one of its trading names, for infringing intellectual property rights. The statement goes on to accuse Lik-Sang of "sour grapes" and addresses the purchasing of PSP goods by Sony executives.

"Lik-Sang did not contest this case (i.e. they did not turn up and therefore incurred no legal costs). We have been awarded substantial costs against Lik-Sang which have not been paid,"

"We would therefore strongly deny that our actions have had anything to do with this website closing (we assume the legal entity is still trading), and would suggest that this release is sour grapes on behalf of Lik-Sang which is aimed to belittle Sony Computer Entertainment and the British judicial system that found against them."

"The purchasing of PSP consoles by SCE employees would be for investigatory purposes. We would also like to express our surprise at a company releasing personal information about its consumers, as this is contrary to data protection principles around the world."

Whether or not Sony is responsible for Lik-Sang giving up, the closure of the popular business is a shame. Sony is now getting ready to wage war against anyone it finds importing PlayStation 3 consoles into Europe.

Sources:

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Comment by: ZippyDSM (Oct 29, 2006 17:35)

dufas

Not aginst them persay I worry about it since oversight has pretty much died in the last decade whos going to watch over them when they try and rape a mountain top and by "raping" not making sure the slurrie is handled right and it posins the ground water and streams of the area,

nuclear is more worrysome while we have not had a full blown meltdown some of the active plants are in bad shape,and to call it "clean" without even thinking about the downsides of it is rather scary to me,thats what thos tv ADs do its "clean and harmless" uhg....

oli is not going anywhere well anywhere for the next 50 years anyway *L* Oli is a mixed bag I would like more reasonable things placed on them so they do not get more out of hand.

Getting rid of them is silly however making sure the corperations don't rape and pillage is not.

Comment by: dufas (Oct 29, 2006 18:35)

My reply was somewhat extreme I admit. In my area, I am surrounded by people that while they think they are forward thinking, their rhetoric is disastrous in it's conclusions.

They do want to shut everything down but still expect to drive to a store and buy a new plasma TV.

One of my neighbors stated that there are over 50,000 people killed in auto accidents a year so why should we worry about the terrorists killing just a few thousand people. While he is not concerned about the terrorists, he complains about the gangs killing one or two people a month. Things don't fit.

One of our politicians worked and got the timber companies to stop logging and got $120,000.00 fees added to every new home being built. Now, she is complaining that there is no low cost housing being built and the prices of homes is too high. She doesn't realize that she is part of the problem.

Not too long ago, the politicians put a 'sin' tax on large boats being built. Result, no one bought any of these boats, boat yards shut down, people were put out of work and the same politicians gripe about the loss in the tax base that they created. They were not concerned about the people that lost their jobs and lost their homes..

Most people can't think past their nose....

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Oct 29, 2006 18:51)

dufas

Fnnny my mind is normally runing away from me :Ping all the way 0-o

*L*

Ya they do step one as in thin up a tax or a fee in order to control growth then stop there and make it into law,its like the anti game laws going around they look at the cuase then blindly try and whack it,its like killing wasps in your room not dealing wit the nest just dealing with whats going to sting you,I might be mindless and have a liby bent but I am all for balance in how things work.

Comment by: dufas (Oct 29, 2006 20:31)

Both liberals and conservatives do stupid things...

There should not be free reign to do anything as the conservatives are want to do but likewise, if one thing goes wrong or one person does something not quite right, making laws against everyone that is doing the thing correctly is not right as the liberals tend to do is not right either. I am sick of hearing the phrase "zero tolerance..." Handing out condoms to 12 year old school kids is alright but if one of the kids are caught taking an asprin for a headache, they are kicked out of school...? What's wrong with this picture ????

Comment by: smithan6 (Nov 01, 2006 23:35)

First off Im a Nintendo fan I favor the NDS over the PSP thats not to say I don't like sony products. I just wanted to say I think sony is much to head strong from what I can gather they didn't want to lose out on money. If any one reads this I just wanna say thanks sony for taking away the site where we all could go to get the the things we wanted not what sony regulated. Thank sony you really showed off ur colors.

oh and does anyone know of a site like link-sang besides ebay?

and is there some site I can write about this for others to read besides a fourm? thanks

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 01, 2006 23:57)

smithan6
play asia.com ?

lean to the games the NDS wins over the PSP ,the PSP is the better all in one gadget tho,the PS2 has more medicore and fun titles than the Xbox and GC dose but not enough to make it the only one you need.

its funny SOny has not went after more importers I wonder if this is jsut a attempt to scare importers....gggrrr I wish I could find more info on this.

FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A.
Sony has declared war on importers the consumer will be next with CD's,Videos/Games not far behind that....boycott SONY!
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8062.cfm

Comment by: handsom (Nov 02, 2006 16:44)

I think it's more because Lik-Sang is the big one for importing *NEW* systems, whereas other companies are mainly consoles that have been around a while. That and Lik-Sang was the best known - A HUGE target.

-------------------------------------------------
Will the PS3 dominate the console market?
Maybe, if Sony lowers the price and stops lowering the hardware specs.
For News on this: http://www.megagames.com

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 03, 2006 00:32)

handsom
target for what they drooped the chips and now sony ran them aground because it could? gotta love corporate might trumping logic.

FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A.
Sony has declared war on importers the consumer will be next with CD's,Videos/Games not far behind that....boycott SONY!
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8062.cfm

Comment by: smithan6 (Nov 05, 2006 22:50)

I think Sony did this because their sick of there products getting out to countrys before there released.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 06, 2006 05:42)

then they should I dunno support that region and not do it half asrsedly....

BTW play asia is also baned from psp and PS3 importing to euro...

FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A.
Sony has declared war on importers the consumer will be next with CD's,Videos/Games not far behind that....boycott SONY!
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8062.cfm

Comment by: DR34MER (Nov 27, 2006 22:27)

Sony did this because Lik Sang broke their own distribution contract with Sony in buying cheaper PSPs made for the asian market reboxing them and reselling them at a PREMIUM (cherry picked handsets that were downgradeable to 1.5 - the homebrewer's fave) to the US, EU and AU markets. The fact is that Lik Sang and it's CEO didn't fight the cease and desist order because they knew what they had done wrong.

If you want to clamour at corporations about the principle of regioning in general then see it as a nasty and clever way of doing price controlled marketing AKA Racketeering, but be sure that companies like Lik Sang don't give much more of hoot about their customers than Sony does and that they too will break any number of laws and contracts to make that extra dollar too.

The latter is the reason why Lik Sang didn't have a legal leg to stand on and could only whine to their customers via a press release. It's also a convenient way of not having to pay some of those who still had products on order, especially cherry picked PSPs.

Comment by: DR34MER (Nov 27, 2006 22:39)

I should add too that Lik Sang listing off the Sony Execs who use L S supplied goods is a morally reprehensible action. These Sony Employees have a right to their privacy as we all do and Lik Sang trampled all over that.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 27, 2006 22:40)

DR34MER

*rolls eyes*

maybe because theres alot of 1.5- systems in the market.

Also being sued in 3 one 4 different time zones I don't think any "normal" company could survive it.

Link sang also went out of their way to add a EU power converter by sony non the less.

Sony is doing the same thing as Link and then they bitch when someone dose a better job at it,also link has not sold mod chips and moded systems in years they were becoming one of the best places online to find anything game related it would have been in Sonys interest to not sue them out but force them into a deal to not sale export/import certain things a deal would have done them both good,they could sale updated PSPs and not import/export the PS3 to EU untill the EU console launched.

I guess its to much to ask for LOL

its ture both will screw you while they can link jsut got pwned by Gannon....LOL

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 27, 2006 22:46)

DR34MER

SOny started it by the multi front attack,all it shows was that they used them to and yet closed them down jsut becuse they could *rolls eyes*

Comment by: DR34MER (Nov 27, 2006 22:48)

I know, I own a 1.5 but Lik Sang signed an agreement with Sony and they broke it, not Sony. Whatever L S chose to do to support their customers, I'm sure it was done with a keen eye on the bottom line - those EU power supplies weren't given away, yaknow?

Lik Sang have sold some ordinary product too in the past. Third party Dreamcast guns and the Treamcast come to mind.

This is about the almighty dollar and that means the customer eventually suffers.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 27, 2006 22:59)

DR34MER

they resold UNUSED systems with a EU and US power at a marked up price big friggin whoop.

Sony still went overboard,SOny did it to bleem when bleem was not using any code from sony.it shows sony has the power to sue anything into the ground if it gets in their way the consumer will be next....

Comment by: DR34MER (Nov 27, 2006 23:27)

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I know all abt Bleem! Ex Beta Tester, ex #bleem regular, ex #Emu regular, I even tried to sell the product locally and yes Sony ruined Bleem!

This isn't the same though, Bleem! company and Sony never had any sort of agreement and Bleem! did compete with potential sales of the PSX/PSOne and the PS2 as it offered smoothed textures and better lighting than the real PSX or emulated PSX via PS2 could muster. It's true, Sony killed Bleem! by forcing retailers not to carry the product unless wanted to be blackballed from Sony. That's Racketeering and yes it sucks.

However, Lik Sang grey marketing product so bald-facedly and getting caught in the midst of doing it whilst having a signed agreement also sucks and like it or not grey marketing often leads to price increases to cover lost revenue. Where Lik Sang made hay while the sun shone the consumer ends up paying more in the longer term.

It's clear there are reasons to hate the big corps, but this isn't one.

Comment by: ElStonero (Dec 10, 2006 14:54)

is there anywhere to get drivers for their products or am i kinda screwed

Comment by: O_C_FReaK (Feb 19, 2007 16:36)

Quote:
"The purchasing of PSP consoles by SCE employees would be for investigatory purposes. We would also like to express our surprise at a company releasing personal information about its consumers, as this is contrary to data protection principles around the world."

I wonder,was it Sony that had rootkits installed in over than a million PCs with XCP and Mediamax software?Or is it my impression?Talking about F*****G hypocrits!

Comment by: O_C_FReaK (Feb 19, 2007 16:49)

...hypocrites.Sorry for the typo.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Feb 19, 2007 17:40)

DR34MER
since they no longer carried mod chips to a large degree and were toning back the gray aera stuff they could not get link on that however they did get them on the pact they had with sony.
Still sony did them in much like they did bleem and any other apparent or not threat to them.
-----------

ElStonero
link sold the goods they did not make them you can still find the items they sold on the net.
---------------
O_C_FReaK
All sony can do is lie and spin PR in the end they are a half arsed manufacture on their way to being bought out.

Comment by: handsom (Feb 27, 2007 20:59)

As I was saying before (srry I couldn't respond, I got banned for one month for pulling a rly stupid stunt), right or wrong, Lik-Sang was a HUGE target for this.

As another member said, Sony is trying to scare importers, so that they can make more money in higher cost areas, rather than seeing Lik-Sang or other importers make that same extra buck. Ethically, there's really no moral ground to stand on, because they legally bought the product, and then they sell the same product in the same condition, to another user elsewhere; that's a great commerce model if you've ever seen one. I'm not sure as to how it is truly 'illegal' or violating any laws in reality; obviously there is some way they can legally make their case, or this wouldn't have happened.

From my uneducated, ignorant, mentally-unfit viewpoint(If I am the consumer Sony openly claims it's consumers are, see other interviews where they openly insult their consumers stating that people would buy the system even if they produced nothing for it, sheerly because of the brand), I cannot understand the legal reasoning for this, but in some way, they obviously have something and as weak as it may be, Sony has better lawyers than Lik-Sang, garaunteed. So while we can argue the stupidity of it all year, in real life Sony will always win - Not Lik-Sang. Which is unfortunate, because from an e-commerce viewpoint, Lik-Sang stood as a very interesting case study, proving that imports and exports of an item [eventually] available worldwide really does make a good buck.

It's unfortunate that things came to an end like this, I would be less bothered if it were settled on some sort of cost-difference scheme(Ex: If Lik-Sang made a profit of $50/unit, then they refund $50/unit), I could completely understand that, but the amount that Sony sued them for is just inconceivable to me, but again, I'm Sony's idea of a consumer. Go figure.

Either way, from my uneducated, non-expert, consumer point of view(Don't you love how I lump the words uneducated and non-expert together as one with consumer?) I don't understand the legalities of it all, but obviously big lawyers make quite a difference in these type of affairs.

What do you bet that Sony approached them under-the-table about this first though?

Professional Grade Glass Etching - Get your favorite Game/Movie/Anime logos etched into glass, PM me for info.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Feb 27, 2007 21:21)

handsom
No shizle,they hit link with 10 cases in 2 or 3 countries,you either fold or cheat,they don't have the ability to be more sneaky than "P"ony thus they fold.

I half half a mind to sell PS3s on ebay for 30% above cost + shipping just to spite "P"ony ,ship them to the UK/Aus/canda/Irland and such but not the US,the main reason for the 30%+ in price is warranty coverage you cant be a legit seller anymore without being crooked >>

FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A.
Sony has declared war on importers the consumer will be next with CD's,Videos/Games not far behind that....boycott SONY!
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8062.cfm

Comment by: eiffel65 (Mar 12, 2007 21:49)

Boycott!!!

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Mar 12, 2007 21:56)

Originally posted by eiffel65:
Boycott!!!

I am till I have 700$ t burn :P

god no wonder Link and importers are liked,800-1200 for in country PS3s ><