Lik-Sang out of business

[Alzrius]

Major game import site Lik-Sang has announced today that, as a result of continual lawsuits from the Sony corporation, they have been forced out of business. They also made several other remarks about Sony, to which the company responded in kind. You can read the full article over at IGN.

 

[trancejeremy]

Just to be fair though, Lik-Sang has a spotty history. Nintendo sued them for selling flash carts which can play pirated games. Sony and Microsoft sued them for selling mod chips for the PS2 and Xbox.

In fact, here's a Slashdot article called "Microsoft shuts down Lik-Sang"

http://slashdot.org/articles/02/10/03/1623204.shtml?tid=109

In this case, it's pretty dodgy of Sony, but it could be part of a vendetta

 

[Redrobes]

Can anyone tell me on what grounds they were found to be unlawful this time around ? I mean is buying something legal and then selling it in another country with all the due tax and import paperwork etc not allowed ? Is there some license that you are bound by when buying a PSP ?

 

[Alzrius]

Can anyone tell me on what grounds they were found to be unlawful this time around ? I mean is buying something legal and then selling it in another country with all the due tax and import paperwork etc not allowed ? Is there some license that you are bound by when buying a PSP ?

The article seems to state that previous lawsuits were due to them modding consoles to be able to play games region-free, or similar mods. This last lawsuit seems to have been over the redistribution of Asian PSPs to Europe being unsafe due to different voltages with power supplies (i.e. batteries, I think) in different parts of the world.

You'd have to read the article though, that's just what I picked up from a once-through.

 

[Redrobes]

I read it but it still does not figure. You can buy other countries stuff even if its mains powered and in any case thats something for health and safety guys rather than Sony themselves. There has to be more to this than is being reported. I know its a cute notion to think that the law is just made up as you go - certainly appears that way - but I know its not and there must have been grounds for the court to side with Sony on this one. But heck I cant see it.

The Lik-Sang feed was only there because of a gap in the market where you could not get certain games in foreign countries so thats bound to rub up one set of Sony fans. Sony seem to be hopping from one debacle to another. Its a wonder anyone buys their stuff any more. I used to think their stuff was good but they hosed their good will with that root kit and the eternally in development / late PS3 must be taking its toll.

 

[LightPhoenix]

To be fair, Lik-Sang was, and more than likely still is, involved in shady stuff. While they may have been forced out of business, no one can say that they didn't paint a big red target on themselves.

 

[trancejeremy]

Yeah, that was my point. This is not unlike Al Capone being targeted for tax evasion, not the more serious stuff.

The real troubling bit is that somehow law in Europe applies to Hong Kong. But that would be politics, so I'll leave it at that...

 

[KenM]

Yeah, that was my point. This is not unlike Al Capone being targeted for tax evasion, not the more serious stuff.

The reason they got him on tax evasion is because they could not get him on anything else, Capone was good that way.
End of hijack.

 

[Ranger REG]

To be fair, Lik-Sang was, and more than likely still is, involved in shady stuff. While they may have been forced out of business, no one can say that they didn't paint a big red target on themselves.

All the more reason to support this criminal organization when it comes to Sony.

-- Paladin, I am Not

 

[RyanL]

I read it but it still does not figure. You can buy other countries stuff even if its mains powered and in any case thats something for health and safety guys rather than Sony themselves. There has to be more to this than is being reported. I know its a cute notion to think that the law is just made up as you go - certainly appears that way - but I know its not and there must have been grounds for the court to side with Sony on this one. But heck I cant see it.

Console stuff is expensive in Europe, and Sony wants it to stay that way. That's pretty much the long and short of it. I don't know if the law was intended to enable price-fixing, but that's the end result.