Should Hardware Drivers be Region/Language Locked?

An anonymous reader asks: "Recently, I have purchased Sony's new Hi-MD player. I popped in their driver CD, and instead of installer launching, I was greeted by the message, 'Cannot install for this Windows language.' It seems like it rejected installation, because my default language setting is Japanese, although I am using English version of Windows. I got the response from Sony stating that: 'If you are using a different language set up for your computer, you will not be able to use the software supplied with the product. Unfortunately, currently there is no workaround for this issue. The only option would be to change the language setting of your computer.' Now I'm asking for my money back. The hardware device is practically useless without the software installation, and it seems like they are going too far, especially since this may affect anyone who uses more than one languages on their computer. Isn't this discrimination to multi-lingual people living in the targeted market? And isn't it unfair to impose such restrictions on software that is required to use hardware?"

Comments

Simple Solution

[rumpledstiltskin]

Don't buy Sony

Re:Simple Solution

[gl4ss]

'for the future' advice, It's not bad.

He should have listened it already, if you're intending to use a player to listen to stuff you encoded into mp3/whatever yourself, Sony sucks as a music player choice.

I too, however, use their earplug style headphones which are pretty good in the price/performance ratio. But people who have bought their MD players to be used as Mp3 player replacements have been disappointed in all cases I know(They advertise them like they would work like charm, moving mp3's to them and playing them from it, yet it doesn't work like that. converting to atrac with drm that adds unneeded complexity, dependance on their crappy software, and re-encoding).

They're excellent as MD players, but that's just about it..

so what should he do? return it, try to get his money back and complain to Sony that their way sucks(going through EXTRA TROUBLE to HARASS THE CUSTOMER).

Re:Simple Solution

[TheLink]

Well it's more than one dude.

There aren't many good reasons to buy Sony stuff. Unless you like aibos that much...

They're fond of having their own type of batteries, memory, etc.

Their optical disc drives/players typically have poorer media compatibility than even the taiwanese brands (they're probably all made in China, which makes it even more puzzling why they're more sucky).

You often pay a premium for Sony stuff (except for cdrom drives for some reason ;) ). Don't see what you get for the premium.

Not exactly a 'lock-out'

[cbiffle]

This isn't a region or language lock-out. It's a language-aware installer that lacks a localization for your region.

The problem here, really, is that the installer won't offer to install some default localization when it can't find an appropriate one. There isn't some massive evil company trying to keep you from using their software.

Why not kick the computer to English for the duration of the install, and then switch it back?

discrimination? try grey market deterrence...

[perlchild]

Discrimination it's not, technically(not giving a multi-lingual person an advantage is arguably, not discrimination, since it's not a disadvantage...). Well I'm sure it's being argued that way, someplace.

But the real reason is probably that if it worked in Japanese, people might export your version to Japan, where it likely is much more expensive, and Sony would lose revenue(let's not get into the ethics of that shall we?). It's arguably why some Francophone markets(I'm from Quebec) have to wait longer than others to get their version of a DVD, even it's its already available. (Sometimes I really wish Quebec would go back to it's "release in both official languages at the same time, by law.) Because european-french releases usually are much more tardy than North American ones, we have to wait for software, until it's released over there, even if it's translated here(and ready by the same time the North-American English version is).

Now I wasn't aware they charged extra for the fr_FR version, but I'm sure a grey market copy would inflate in value in France, if it was available before everyone else can get a copy.

In your case, I'd strongly suspect that the english/multilingual copy to be cheaper than the Japanese version. Oddly enough, lots of software will install in english on a french computer, so I suspect it's not a technical "deny" but more of an administrative/marketing one in your case. (Yes I know, there are also issues about input methods, but I doubt it's the problem here, as you mention a driver...)

Re:discrimination? try grey market deterrence...

[Gilk180]

(Sometimes I really wish Quebec would go back to it's "release in both official languages at the same time, by law.)

How does this help anyone? All this would accomplish is making the English speakers wait longer for their release.

Also if the law matches your description, it would also prevent companies who lack the resources to create a French version from releasing anything at all. That seems to be a very anti-competitive/big business stance.

The only thing I could think of is..

[mivok]

if the software being installed does not have a japanese translation available (and there is a japanese version of course), but even so I'm surprised it's not overridable.
Also, have you tried setting the default language to english, installing, and changing the language back? I'm not sure if this is possible under windows (I'm a macosx/linux/*bsd user myself), but it seems like a possible workaround.

Unless

[metalhed77]

They didn't write the installer from scratch, and someone thought it'd be a good idea to check off english in the installer configs perhaps not knowing the ramifications for this. Very few programs have installers coded from scratch.

Sony always was the Other Evil Empire

[HalfFlat]

This is standard operating procedure for Sony.

Sony, much like every other company, want to maximise their profits. Sony, unlike most companies, is large enough to set standards and influence government policy on matters such as copyright so that they can engage in discriminatory pricing (discriminatory in the sense that are able to discriminate between markets and charge in each market according to demand and local pricings.)

Proprietay hardware and software formats. Pointless (from the user's point of view) restrictions on using their hardware. Lobbying for legislation to declare re-importation of CDs as a copyright violation. Region ecoding on DVDs. These are all part of the same policy.

The fact that they make sexy looking hardware is no reason to buy into this scheme unnecessarily.

Given the asinine restrictions and unnecessary hoops I would have to jump through to use a Net-MD player or its ilk, there is no way I'd ever buy an MD player with the intent of connecting it to a computer. I'm sorry to hear that yet another aspect of their profit-maximisation policy has claimed a victim.

PS: Sony warranty support is also one of the worst I've ever had to deal with in a professional capacity. Again, they're big enough that they don't need to care.

PPS: It's a real shame that the fruits of Fujitsu's very cool MO technology look like they will be primarily found only in Sony's product. The 2.3GB MO 3.5" format was amazing, but just never caught on. There was a collaboration with Sony and this looks like the result.

All too Common

[HeghmoH]

This kind of thoughtlessness regarding people who speak more than one language is all too common. Windows is a nightmare for multilingual users. You can't change OS languages without reinstalling, and using programs in two languages with different encodings inevitably results in one language being completely mangled. This is one area where the Mac really shines. And don't even get me started on idiot webmail programmers who think that everyone uses ASCII, search sites that think everyone uses Latin1, etc. etc. etc. Your experience is slightly worse than normal, but not surprising. The correct response is to demand your money back and send them a strong message that they need to be aware that not everybody in a given country exclusively speaks that country's national language.