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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?"
Don't buy Sony
our just poor Q and A on the install process... my guess is just a bug in the install process that doesn't allow the install to happen if it runs into a non-english language. it really wouldn't make sense to try and lock out users just based on their language. just My two cents.
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?
All hardware and software should be language locked to English. People need to get with the picture and stop using those other languages because I don't understand them. :-)
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...)
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.
For a while my company would ALSO lock you out of installing on a japanese machine.
As it turns out japanese machines have a different base character set, and the installer [installshield] would crash ALL the time. Even if multiple language packs were installed. Eventually after much head scratching, and installshield saying "wow you are right it doesnt work here either, and we have no idea why" I finally figured out what it was.
Turns out installshield at the time if you had a copyright symbol in a start emnu folder name would always crash.
I've also seen installations that just simply did not support japanese or chinese. They do have different language formats, not every letter can be kept in a single byte of data.
Or the CD-rom is hard coded to a region, and they make assumptions about people in a different regional language trying to install hardware not region specific. hard to say.
Yeah! I am upset as well. I have been trying to post to slashdot in many different languages, and it does not work.
I will try again:
Cyrillic:
Hebrew:
It does not look like it is working properly. All I see is that it is changed to unicode characters that slashdot seems to filter when they are displayed. What do they think I am going to do with them? Construct a giant unicode version of ascii art goatse?
I am very annoyed! I petition for slashdot to be multilingual.
badness 10000
Why does Slashdot *still* block pound signs?
Look, here's one:
Did you see it?
No?
Because it isn't friggin' there, is it?!
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.
Photos.
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.
:-)
(whadda ya bet somebody posts about Sony being a Japanese company anyway?)
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
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.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Then you can write your own driver.
Stop the world; I need to get off.
I can kind of see their point; if people try to install using instructions in a language they don't know, the results can be random. I was once asked to help a friend install something on her PC. She booted up her PC, popped in the CD, and up came a dialog box. In Chinese. She asked "what should the answer to this question be?" and I asked her "well, what is the question?" It took a long time because the translation process was non-trivial. I can see why Sony might balk at the idea of having their help desk try to sort out the problems experienced by users trying to install on a system using an unfamiliar language.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Often these devices don't let you just play music stored as regular FAT files. Even the iPod forces you to only play files that are placed there by iTunes in a hidden sparse disk-image. You can copy your MP3s to your player in disk-mode, but then you can't play them on the player, or you can use the tools to put them into the player and no longer have them as files.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
"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?"
Is this the best you came up with? This is is Ask Slashdot, i.e. a tech-crowd. A better question would be:"So did anyone manage, or is planning, to find a way around it, either through some kind of emulation, or possibly by hacking the device/software?"
As for your questions, Sony is a company which is both global and fascist, in the sense that it considers it's own vision, of complete vertical integration, superior to what customers actually want or need. The company does very little market-research, does most of it's R&D and development in Japan, and offers standardised products across the globe. Most decisions regarding products are also made at the top (i.e. Japan, sometimes US) and feedback from the market takes weeks, if not months, to be filtered back after going through dozens of managers. Even so, Sony is under intense pressure to change it's tactics, not from customers directly, but because of better and cheaper competition. For any real change to happen, however, will take a long-long time.
You can just change your OS settings for the install. then change it back.
I think it was CloneCD that had some functions that were illegal in the US and some countries, so if you installed the software in those countries, some features would be disabled. So I'd just change my settings to that have The Netherlands and installed the software (all features enable) changed the setting back and still had access to all the features.
So go to the control panel and change the region settings, install the software, change them back and injoy.
In case it doesn't work when you change it back, then don't. you don't have to have the region settings and language/fonts match. so you can have the computer think it's in japan but using Italian if you like...
Be seeing you...
Isn't it ironic that a Sony device won't work because your language is set to Japanese??