Lik-Sang busted for grey market imports, European fanboys weep

In a move that could have serious repercussions for gamers worldwide, the UK High Court has ruled that noted Hong Kong-based electronics exporter Lik-Sang is in violation of Sony's intellectual property rights when it sells the company's hardware inside the European Economic Area. As many of you know, Lik-Sang has been a primary source for hard-to-find foreign gadgets, exporting such products as Nintendo's DS Lite weeks or months before they launch in the rest of the world. Sony claims that it will continue to pursue grey market importers under the guise of "protecting consumers" from gear that doesn't conform to local safety standards, electrical voltages, and software encoding, even though it would seem that most people purchasing these goods are fully aware of what they're getting into. This development should be especially troubling to European gamers, who may have been hoping to snatch up a PS3 several months before the scheduled rollout there; now, exporters will likely be more wary of shipping consoles to Europe in light of this legal precedent. On a completely separate note, Engadget has recently secured 1,000 PS3 units and a small plane to smuggle them overseas, where we'll be selling them out of the back of a Land Rover on a first come, first served basis for €10,000 apiece (component and HDMI cables not included).

[Via Gamesindustry.biz]

[ROFLROFFLES @ Oct 19th 2006 4:04PM]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

there is still play-asia though..

mwhahahahahahahahha

[Lou @ Oct 19th 2006 4:10PM]

I know that we are in an economy where intellectual property rights are king, but between Sony, RIAA, MPAA, and Microsoft, it is amazing that I can still play video games with one controller without having to buy a second system to have someone else play.

The reasoning behind barring shipments has to be so far attenuated from anything that makes sense. Safety? C'mon. Although, I bet SCEA didn't even know Sony lawyers were doing this, kind of like when Sony was setting up a music store and was having trouble within their company because of Sony records in the RIAA.

I used to be a Sony fanboy, but my Xbox360 came in last week. I'm another defector.

[Wonderboy @ Oct 19th 2006 4:14PM]

�10,000? That's it??? I'll take three. ;-)

[Chris McDowell @ Oct 19th 2006 4:17PM]

I am glad to see that these companies are sticking up for our saftey and shutting down grey market importers. One day the world will be a better place because of the actions of companies like sony and the RIAA controlling our lives. Soon we will all be pure consumers and not have to worry about making the wrong purchasing decisions or choosing our own content because it will all be fed to us and we will all be safe.

This is all sarcasm by the way. Were all doomed if we let this stuff continue. Between corporations and governments choosing what is right for us, everyone is going to become brainwashed morons. More so than now.

[Harbert @ Oct 20th 2006 3:03AM]

Here is a nice vid about this whole trusted computing :)

http://www.lafkon.net/tc/

[tweak @ Oct 19th 2006 4:19PM]

I thought it was a superb joke.

[ROFLROFFLES @ Oct 19th 2006 4:25PM]

The jokes was good. Enough to made me chuckled.

[Rocket Punch @ Oct 19th 2006 4:27PM]

That is exactly what SONY needs, pissing more Europe gamer off. SONY is a name that is getting cloaer and closer to the word disappointment every single day.

They are even worst than MS at time point in time. I gave up on getting the PS3 and opt for thw Wii instead. Their launch title is pathetic, the golded time to get one is probably next year when they actually have the big titles out. Not to mention I forsee lots of problem with their first batch of machines.

[Fuzz @ Oct 19th 2006 4:28PM]

"protecting consumers" roughly translates into "gouging European customers and preventing them from getting our products at reasonable prices".

[George Lerma @ Oct 19th 2006 4:50PM]

True. If Sony really wanted to protect consumers they wouldn't make explosive batteries.

[inlogic @ Oct 19th 2006 4:43PM]

with �10.000 I would get to buy a ticket to japan, spend a night in Park Hywatt hotel in tokyo in it's most expensive room, buy a PS3, some games, and at last a component HDMI cable on arrival, in some electronics store.

[Mike @ Oct 19th 2006 4:50PM]

...and you WONDER why so many European countries are in rough shape economically.

[Matt @ Oct 19th 2006 4:54PM]

It is clearly due to lack of imported electronics.

[Brandon @ Oct 19th 2006 5:25PM]

Kudos to Sony for protecting customers in Europe! Now all the European customers can be safe from those harmful gray market imports. That's one giant leap for mankind toward electronic Utopia.

[RJR @ Oct 19th 2006 5:51PM]

@ Tweak & ROFLROFFLES,
Does sucking up to Engadget writers help you win their contests? If so... that joke was pure genius!

[kei @ Oct 19th 2006 5:55PM]

As a consumer who's paying their hard earned cash to those big companies, we should have the final say of when and how we want our purchases. Those region locks (games, DVD, consoles...etc) is just limits set by big corporations to protect their profits; I don't see why consumers should help/obey them in anwyay.

Given what happened with the exploding laptop batteries, the last thing Sony would have concern is the safety of consumers IMHO.

To best way to stop grey market imports is to sell everything without region locks, at the same date and price. Apparently Sony fails to do that with PS3 so they go with the way that piss off even more European gamers.

[Frederik @ Oct 19th 2006 6:10PM]

Does this mean that Lik-Sang will stop selling Sony products, or does it mean that it'll close?

[Shogan @ Oct 19th 2006 8:33PM]

Sony is clearly not interested in protecting gamers.

[Dr Who @ Oct 19th 2006 8:38PM]

Hi!
To quote one, "Frederik @ Oct 19th 2006 6:07PM
Does this mean that Lik-Sang will stop selling Sony products, or does it mean that it'll close?" and with him saying that.. Not bloody likely. I should think they will end up getting their wrists slapped. And go onto business as usual.

On a different note, they sell the only Linux based console, cheap. It's the Gamepark GP2X, well reasonably so, compared to a US vendor, that guy is selling it for 149.90. I suspect because Lik-Sang has it back ordered, they decided to raise the price, because two days ago, they were cheaper then the US Importing agent.

[c.Lake @ Oct 19th 2006 11:14PM]

WTF??? ...and fanboys wonder WHY so many people go into a anti-Sony rant, on every blog site -- in site. THIS is WHY!!

Sony is making money off EVERY GAME UNIT sold. They are not being ripped off. For christ sake -- they are getting the money sooner, rather then later. So what's the F*king Problem --- There isn't one. They, like always, are inventing a problem that doesn't exist.

[Andrew H @ Oct 19th 2006 11:23PM]

This does NOT apply to ALL of Europe. British courts have no power in foreign (other European) jurisdictions. So I imagine it will take Sony quite some to time to make it illegal. Besides parallell import is a well known technique that has been tried before in other European countries - and the results are not always the same.

[Finished Law School @ Oct 20th 2006 12:16AM]

Leave it to Sony to prove once again how much it hates its customers...

[Scooter @ Oct 20th 2006 12:38AM]

this sickens me. If you're willing to pay good money you should be able to buy what you want, from wherever in the world you want. Dealers who have obtained the goods from a wholesaler, retailer or any other legitimate source (i.e. not stolen) should be free to sell those goods where and how they please. Otherwise it is uncompetitive behaviour by the manufacturer or other agent in the supply chain trying to distinguish 'official' from grey outlets. Some countries have removed such barriers e.g. New Zealand does not discriminate against so-called grey imports. If 'official' retailers really do offer benefits to consumers e.g. through support, spare parts etc. then they can readily compete with unofficial importers: they will, however, have to insist that Sony etc. keep their pricing competitive: not something for which they are famous.

If fanboys are willing to pay 10,000EUR I will happily pop down to my local Bic Camera or Yodobashi and grab you one of these, or any local kit you fancy.

[Moonwhaler @ Oct 20th 2006 4:26AM]

Funny thing. Isn't anybody thinking: "Wait a minuite!" Companies thinking about globalisation - using low wage countries as a base for their production and selling these product EXPENSIVE (I mean factor 200%-300%) to other countries, BUT if Mr. / Mrs. Noname wants to buy something cheap from somewhere else (think GLOBALISATION for the ordinary people) this is forbidden by the court (and the companies)? WTF?

I don't have anything against globalisation, but please open it up for us - the consumers, too! Oh, I forgot: That's what companies do it in the first place for... Wait a minute!

[myscrnnm @ Oct 20th 2006 6:34PM]

You can't really blame Sony for this though. When you look at it from their point of view, they could come under fire for having their products in places where they don't conform to the electronic device standards. Yes, technically speaking, they wouldn't ben in the wrong, but it doesn't matter what is right or wrong to the people, it's about what the people will think, and their initial reaction will be that Sony's products are of low quality.

[Bent Knob @ Oct 20th 2006 7:13PM]

In the words of Kim Jong II
This sux

[Matthew @ Oct 21st 2006 8:29AM]

Well, let's just hope they still deliver my already ordered things. I live in the UK. Fuck.