Sony's Win a Major Blow for Importers

Joan Cross writes "Sony won a battle in the UK Courts over the importing to Europe of Playstation Portables by Lik Sang. They say that 'Ultimately, we're trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera'. Of course, the PSP comes supplied with a 100-240v adapter which is safe worldwide. Lik Sang has posted their reaction to the court decision. Could be bad news for those wanting PS3 Consoles on import."

Comments

Riiiiiight

[KU_Fletch]

Because when I think Sony, I think consumer protection.

Re:Riiiiiight

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

The fact that when you turn on a PSP and the battery doesn't blow up in your la...

never mind.

Re:Riiiiiight

[eclectro]

I have always admired Sony's quality music CD offerings$$&&&+++NO CARRIER

Fixed it

[Kattspya]

There seem to be a small error in the summary so I fixed it.

'Ultimately, we're trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that is cheaper than what can be bought locally'

Re:Fixed it

[AndroidCat]

The game console industry always has interesting business models

Re:Fixed it

[drinkypoo]

That's not true either. Import hardware is more expensive. What they're trying to do is stop people from being able to play games that are sold out of their region. This is related to the same issue in DVD-land, and basically it has to do with legal price-fixing. It's legal for them to set arbitrary prices in different countries, for effectively the same product. I mean a lot of DVDs are for example sold in English, French, and Spanish. There's nations with those languages in a variety of regions so they get to sell the same content (with the audio tracks and subtitles mastered in a different order, basically) for different prices in each market to maximize sales. Sony is just trying to protect their price-fixing racket. Of course, I already went over (with a coworker who probably now thinks I'm crazy if she didn't already) the many reasons why I would not buy any Sony products in the future - this is just one more reason. Sony has really been trying hard to lose customers in the last few years.

Simple solution.....

[budword]

Don't like it ? Vote with your wallet, don't buy one.

Re:Simple solution.....

[tehwebguy]

indeed. i'm sure there is another, less expensive system for mii

Re:Simple solution.....

[SydShamino]

Isn't that usually the Slashdot libertarian response to a company doing something some folks don't like? I don't see how that applies when "Sony Uses Government to Restrict Free Trade" is the subject.

Re:Simple solution.....

[Anonymous Coward]

"Sony Uses Government to Restrict Free Trade" is the subject.

That's not a very honest representation of what's happening here. The EU has rules in place whereby electronic consumer goods have to be certified for safety, non-interference etc. Other major jurisdictions have similar rules, but different for each jurisdiction. Sony themselves have to meet the legal standards before they can import their products to the EU. Shouting 'foul' when someone else tries to bypass those requirements is not unreasonable.

You may now return to your regular Sony bashing.

Re:Simple solution.....

[suv4x4]

Don't like it ? Vote with your wallet, don't buy one.

This is how it's supposed to work right.

Let me tell you how it really works: you vote with your wallet as an example citizen and don't buy one. For every single one like you, there's 100 guys/girls who are either PSP junkies, just don't care, just don't know, or whatever, so they'll buy one.

End result: Sony will never feel your vote, and you don't have a PSP.

Yea, it's sad like that, but... after all, this is the main principle of capitalism: the market decides. And it comprises of all people, not just Sony haters.

Re:Simple solution.....

[suv4x4]

indeed. i'm sure there is another, less expensive system for mii

Hey, did you read the news at all?

"Jokes incorporating puns on the trademark 'Wii' were outlawed in EU and USA yesterday, effective immediately. The decision was taken with in a record amount of time, after public outrage and pressure on the US senators and EU deputies from their local electorate. From now, this action will be punishable with jail time from 2 to 5 years, depending on the size and severity of the offence".

Hahah, I'll visit you in jail, sucker!

Re:Simple solution.....

[Anonymous Coward]

There's four boxes you must use to defend your liberties...

Ballot Box
Soap Box
Jury Box
Ammo Box.

Use in that order.

Re:Simple solution.....

[mrchaotica]

Sony themselves have to meet the legal standards before they can import their products to the EU. Shouting 'foul' when someone else tries to bypass those requirements is not unreasonable.

WTF?!

Sony and Lik Sang are both trying to sell exactly the same damn thing -- PSPs. If the ones sold directly (by Sony) meet the requirements, then the ones sold through a middleman (Lik Sang) do too!

Re:Simple solution.....

[PakProtector]

I think three out of those four have failed. And unfortunately, I can't buy a tank squadron on eBay.

Re:Simple solution.....

[Tim C]

Sony and Lik Sang are both trying to sell exactly the same damn thing

From TFA:

In his ruling yesterday, Judge Michael Fysh found that Lik-Sang - which offered Japanese PSPs to European consumers via its website - was in breach of intellectual property rights.

Are the European and Japanese PSPs "exactly the same damn thing"? Right down to power adaptor, etc? (Honest question, I have zero interest in the PSP so I don't know) If not, then they're not the same thing, and it's possible that they may not meet the same regulations.

That said, I fail to see how what Lik Sang is doing breaches IP rights - in fact, imho, that's utter bullshit.

Re:Simple solution.....

[Grym]

But marketshare is everything. On what do you think those 1% of potential buyers who are upset with Sony's business practices are going to spend their money? Probably a Wii or Xbox 360.

Furthemore, ask yourself, who is the type of person that is going to care so much as to take a stand like you describe? Knowledgeable people, which others probably look to for buying advice. Sure the beancounters may think they're maximizng profit by screwing over 1% of their custmoers, but what if that 1% are game reviewers, gamestore clerks, vocal bloggers, or just helpful friends of casual gamers?

It's easy to just throw up your hands in despair when it coems to things like this, but the fact is: everything you do matters--even if you never realize just how. If it means that much to you and you think you're right, take a stand. You never know what might happen.

-Grym

Re:Simple solution.....

[jamar0303]

Yes, Euro PSPs and JP PSPs are exactly the same (right down to the 100-240V power adapter). Although possibly it's because the JP PSP isn't certified for Europe (for example, my VAIO bought from Japan has no FCC or European certification, only Japanese VCCI certification even though it's exactly the same as its US counterpart) because Sony didn't think about selling it outside Japan. It's sad that Lik-Sang can't sell PSPs in Europe anymore just because Sony made up some excuse (they profit a lot more off of Euro sales, I imagine). Most likely this will mean someone just goes to Japan, buys a bunch of PSPs(Wii/Xbox360/whatever), and sells them to his/her friends instead of ordering online.

Re:Simple solution.....

[Znork]

"there's nothing forcing your buy it."

Um, people were voting with their wallets, buying a product from Lik-Sang. Now the government says you have to buy the product from Sony.

That plainly falls within the realm of coercive interference in the market.

Globalization

[SeaFox]

This is another side to globalization. As the world as a whole becomes more interconnected thanks to the internet and cheap international shipping, the marketting notion of making products available in different contries at different times is not going to hold up.

It's the same issue you already see DVD region encoding, and with digital music services: people complaining about albums being available in some countries and not others when everyone is getting their tunes from a server on the Internet.

In the future corporations are going to need to stop thinking they can easily dictate the geographical spread of their goods and start thinking of their product launches as a worldwide event. The entertainment industries need to stop setting up distribution deals for invidual regions and make their deals for global availablity. If they don't they will only see their products pasisng through black-market channels and piracy rings more readily instead of generating more revenue for them.

Re:Globalization

[Kattspya]

Are you trying to say that it would be a good thing if the weaknesses of your messed up legal system isn't brought to light? We have a 25% VAT on non-food goods (food is only 12%) and the best way to see the actual difference it makes is by seeing products from other countries. It usually pisses me off when I see how cheap everything is but then I remember the VAT and get even more pissed off. High blood pressure is a side effect of being a libertarian in Sweden.

Re:Globalization

[Cederic]

It's not the time difference that gets me. It's the difference in price.

I have to compete directly for jobs with people in India, China, Eastern Europe and anywhere else you can outsource IT to. This impacts the amount I can earn, and my chances of getting a job in the first place.

However, I am forced by EU/UK law to pay a higher price for goods, as demonstrated by this court case.

Frankly this pisses me off. I'm getting fucked over both ways.

Re:Globalization

[Anonymous Coward]

"Frankly this pisses me off. I'm getting fucked over both ways."

Yup, except it's a 4-way, not a 3-way. Globalization ultimately works around nation governments too; thus, there is little effective oversight on the international level to force fair play on multi-national interests.

For example, there are no international anti-trust or price fixing laws that I'm aware of. This has a signficant effect on pricing as well as penetration (pun not intended), such as allowing established industries (e.g. RIAA and MPAA) to charge emerging markets far less for their products. Meanwhile, established markets pay full price, or artificially higher than what would normally be decided by the market (due to intellectual propery laws i.e. patents, copyright). This is why we see can see the same exact products being sold in the US, Mexico, and China go for far far less in the last 2 countries. US and EU college students see this with book pricing. MS OS pricing in Asia indicates this as well.

iow, in some ways, you are essentially subsidizing what amounts to a product loss leader to establish a brand in up and coming markets. In other ways, you are denying fair competition on those emerging markets when they should be protected; those poorer nations have little choice but to abide due to pressure from wealthier nations. (And I believe this is somewhat similar to one of the arguments made against the $100 PC.)

Conversely, those same laws can be used to deny products in those poorer countries as well. In doesn't make logical sense until you realize that companies don't want this importing to occur back to wealthier countries they are established in (see certain aspects of the pharmaceutical industry, although I think they have a fairer policy than the copyright industry groups).

Re:Globalization

[Bertie]

They charge VAT on FOOD?

Wow.

Here in the UK, the general attitude has always been that there's no VAT on necessities, so food, books, and children's clothes, among other things, don't have any (but if you eat in a restaurant, you pay VAT, by the way). I was amazes when a Spanish colleague of mine told me the other day that he had to pay VAT on the house he just bought, but food? That's insane.

Re:Globalization

[ColdWetDog]

High blood pressure is a side effect of being a libertarian in Sweden.

Well, at least you get your health care and medications paid for. Here in the US, we get the high blood pressure from our insane politicians and have to pay for everything by ourselves. Any way you look at it, you lose.

Cheer up though, you don't have to live in Cleveland.

Re:Globalization

[Kattspya]

I don't think there is anything exempt from VAT in Sweden except books (and that just happened a few years ago). I think some kinds of entertainment like concerts and the like are "only" 6%. But there are taxes on everything else.

If you like taxes Sweden is the place to go. First you the employer pays a tax for having an employee (it's basically hidden income tax). Then the worker gets to pay income tax of about 30-40%. Then you have VAT and the other nice little taxes. All those taxes ammounts to about 60% of the average persons income. The ammount of taxation of the BNP is a little more than 49%. Some things are even taxed several times. First theres a tax on gas then you pay VAT on the total cost including the original tax. The same goes for things like electricity and tobacco.

The best part is that the VAT was supposed to be temporary and originally was 5% if i remmeber correctly.

Re:Globalization

[Bertie]

Still, at least you get some good public services with your taxes. We in the UK don't pay that much less tax than you, and our money gets spent on white-elephant IT projects that go over budget by SEVEN BILLION POUNDS, wars nobody supports, utterly pointless ID card schemes, and John Prescott's wages, while our hospitals and schools struggle to make ends meet.

Re:Globalization

[pafrusurewa]

This is why we see can see the same exact products being sold in the US, Mexico, and China go for far far less in the last 2 countries. US and EU college students see this with book pricing.

I think you mean "US and UK college students". I'm in the EU and we don't really have a university textbook industry here. Most of the time professors will provide their own comprehensive and inexpensive scripts which are updated every year or they'll just post their material online. Some people recommend books but not textbooks specifically (so there's no price-gouging).

Re:Globalization

[Acer500]

It's far from the only country in the world.

Argentina & Uruguay (my country - South America) also pay VAT and/or other taxes on food (23% for most stuff, 14% on other). We do follow Spain's lead (unfortunately)

On the other hand, we have some legislation stating that if a company is already importing something (the PSP in this case), you can do paralell imports (or something to the effect) under the "Exhaustion of rights"

As usual, Wikipedia has a neat article on the subject:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_import

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhaustion_of_rights

It's part of a debate which is still happening, the EU is against it, but I would be for it (without having looked too much into it, I'm mostly favorable to fre trade and globalization means most of these barriers are artificial anyways).

Another nice link from New Zealand (a country that's often quoted as exemplary):

http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/Page____1230.aspx

The rationale of the previous government for removing the prohibition on parallel importing was to ensure that New Zealand consumers could access imported goods at world-best prices by promoting a more open and competitive environment. The suggestion that some copyright products were more expensive in New Zealand than in other countries was based on analysis contained in Parallel Importing: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation. The general conclusion of the report was that lifting the blanket parallel-importing ban on all copyright goods was likely to provide net gains to the New Zealand economy as a whole. There was, however, some suggestion that the availability of parallel imported copies of major new release film titles for rental in advance of New Zealand theatrical release was contributing to declining cinema box office takings. [Legislation addressing this] subsequently passed as the Copyright (Parallel Importation of Films and Onus of Proof) Amendment Act 2003.

Too bad the cinemas won there (see last part).

Re:Globalization

[Cederic]

Of course it's cheaper to sell things there. However, when the cheaper labour and operating costs result in a foreign retailer being able to offer me identical goods to a local one at a lower total price (including postage and import duty) then I am still legally prevented from taking advantage of this. I am being forced to pay a higher price or go without.

Since corporate profits come from offshoring their labour costs, let me hurt their profits by offshoring my purchasing. And if that fucks up the economy then I have a simple answer, and it involves employing local people.

Re:Globalization

[mpe]

This is another side to globalization. As the world as a whole becomes more interconnected thanks to the internet and cheap international shipping, the marketting notion of making products available in different contries at different times is not going to hold up.

It's not holding up very well now. Interestingly it's often the same multinational corporations who are pro "globalization" and "free trade" when it means they can pick and choose the cheapest places of the planet to manufacture who kick up the most fuss (typically in the courts) when their customers (both individuals and retail companies) try and do something similar.

In the future corporations are going to need to stop thinking they can easily dictate the geographical spread of their goods and start thinking of their product launches as a worldwide event. The entertainment industries need to stop setting up distribution deals for invidual regions and make their deals for global availablity.

When it comes to movies and TV/radio the regional distribution model has actually been dead for quite some time. Sometimes TV programmes have even been available "by other means" before their broadcast. Even if this dosn't happen they will be available within a short time of their initial broadcast.
People are not going to wait weeks, months (even years) to watch, effectivly any wait longer than 48 hours encourages "piracy". When it comes to speedy global distribution things are in some cases worst than they were a quarter of a century ago, dispite advances in communications technology.

Motives

[Allicorn]

If only certain corporations would realise that its often not so much their predictable actions of self-interest which disgust people, but their wilful dishonesty.

If they'd just say, "We brought this action to ensure that us and only us get to squeeze every last penny-worth of value out of our product and we don't have to share with anyone"... perhaps not a flowers-and-rainbows kinda sentiment but sheesh at least it'd be honest!

Re:Motives

[Esteanil]

Right.

If they'd said anything like that, it'd be in the headlines a *lot* more places than it currently is... Stick to the formula, and it's not newsworthy outside Slashdot and other niche sources.

The real news here...

[spongebue]

Could be bad news for those wanting PS3 Consoles on import.

I didn't know people actually wanted a PS3 to begin with :P

Re:The real news here...

[dracocat]

Why?

Factories can only produce so many per month.

You mean everybody should wait 6 months to a year until there is enough on supply so that you can go into a store and buy one?

So you can build more factories and increase the price per unit because in 6 months there will be less demand, or everyone can wait six months so that everyone gets a fair shot.

If it was up to me I would say sell them one at a time as they come off the end off the assembly line! This applies to the xbox and the wii as well. I want my wii now, not after stock has been built up!

What about Japanese exporters?

[maynard]

Price Japan will export just about anything Japanese to anyone in the world. Some years ago I bought a Sony HS-20 video projector from that site, because it wasn't available in the US at the time. It still works just great. But perhaps court judgments like this will ultimately kill companies like Price Japan.

So, does this mean that Sony can legally prevent private international re-sale of their product line too? Where is the demark line between what is and what is not permissible?

Re:What about Japanese exporters?

[TubeSteak]

I was wondering "Since when does anyone have to get permission from the manufacturer to sell a legally bought item?"

But it turns out that the U.S. has a similar policy w/regards to IP.

The reasoning is that the unauthorized sales violates rights held by licensed distributors of the product, regardless of the legalities behind the (grey market) ownership & sale of the items in question.

http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2005/05/is-there- hole-in-first-sale-doctrine.html

The doctrine of first sale only applies to goods made in countries which have such a doctrine. Basically, if Sony has a distributor network set up, you (as a company) cannot circumvent that network. I imagine it isn't a problem if your cousin/friend/other in China or Japan mails you one.

Re:What about Japanese exporters?

[jamiethehutt]

Price Japan will export just about anything Japanese to anyone in the world.
It cant cost much to post women can it?

Control.. it's all about control. And stupidity.

[Channard]

As a UK resident, importing consoles has never been something I've been concerned about. Not least because we can get stung for import duty - which is going to be a hell of a lot on a console, especially when you add custom charges on. My concern is more that success in this area will lead to restrictions on importing software. What I have found more useful is the ability to import games from other places. Play-Asia, for example lets you get certain region-unlocked X-Box 360 games for less than half the price of buying in the the UK. And there are some games that are severely delayed as well. Advance Wars for the GBA, for example, only hit the UK 6 months after its US release. The same thing applies to DVDs - many titles are available in the US well before the UK.

Why should these companies realistically care anyway? It's not like consumers are buying those crappy knock-offs of consoles you could get during the days of the SNES. And as for safety reasons? What the hell? How would Sony be liable? Most hardware I've bought contains pages and pages of legalese saying where it's intend for use in, what voltage it takes etc. The fact is, this is all about control. Companies are scared of not having 100% control over where customers get their products from. If they really want to regain control, they should try not only equalizing prices, but actually ensuring there's a simultaneous release of their products across the world. Releasing the PS3 in March in the UK certainly doesn't help things.

As for Sony's comments that the PS3 'will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs', I wouldn't buy a PS3 or a X-Box 360 for playing HD DVDs. Certainly, neither's HD facility will be region-free. And there are myriad titles that never get released in a certain region. Unless you only have an interest in watching mainstream blockbusters, a region-free player is a must. And the PS2's DVD performance was laughable. Not because it was poor quality, but because when you tried to watch any film in RGB mode, it green tinted the picture. Apparently this was some kind of copy protection measure. Yes, even though DVDs have macrovision. Who's to say the PS3 won't have some daft similar limitation.

Re:bah,

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Actually, there's no confirmation whether or not Sony's losing thier pants on the ps3...

But still, Sony Computer Ent. Europe does lose money, even if Sony Computer Ent Japan doesn't. Mostly because they track their
sales and revunue seperately from each other.

Oh, I agree, it's stupid, but i'm just pointing out the logic of why it's both true and it's stupid.

Re:Sony's Simple solution.....

[patrixmyth]

If they don't like my ability to sell something I've bought to someone else, and buy similarly, then I have a simple solution for them. They can vote with their products and not sell them.

Thinking of legal ways around this

[Wills]

If Lik Sang were to bulk-buy PSPs from Japanese retailers (legal) in Japan, have the purchased PSPs delivered to the home addresses in Japan of minimum-wage Japanese workers who open the PSP retail box/packaging and use the PSPs for at least a month (legal), the consoles would then be used goods which could be legally exported and sold anywhere in the world including the EU and UK. Even after shipping costs and customs taxes are taken into account, it should still be profitable given the relatively very high prices in the EU and UK of brand new PSPs.

Re:Control.. it's all about control. And stupidity

[jandrese]

Heck, the fact that it won't play European region Blu-Ray Movies is one reason people buy second consoles. It's not uncommon at all to buy a second player if you import a lot of movies from another country, especially if you feel legally queasy about modding your DVD player to ignore regions.

Since Sony's Losing Money on Them

[Greyfox]

And developers base their platform choices on the number of platforms in circulation I propose that we buy thousands of these machines for the purpose of epoxying them together into a giant angry penguin statue, 4 stories tall, to be erected across the street from the Sony corporate headquarters. Developers will know that thousands of the machines will never be used for gaming, Sony loses tens of thousands of dollars from their per-unit loss and we get to build a 4 story angry penguin statue out of consumer electronics. It's a win-win!

Re:Since Sony's Losing Money on Them

[Anonymous Coward]

Great. My teenage daughter read this over my shoulder and ran into her room crying. She's inconsolable.

Holy shit, a four story high penguin statue? Dear readers, do NOT fuck with this guy.

Problem will be here to stay...

[mutube]

This is nothing new. It's what happens when you have two neighbouring areas with different market prices (due to cost of living, salaries, etc. etc.)

In 'The Good Old Days'(tm) this wasn't a problem. Goods, services and the workforce were not mobile - companies could charge according to the local market and achieve the maximum profit for that region. The workforce itself is kept in place because staying put is comparitively cost effective to moving (in both financial and personal sense).

Not anymore. Cars can be bought in Europe and imported over to the UK, Japanese games can be imported to the US. While labour is still relatively static (I aint moving anytime soon) goods are comparitively free to move around and they happily do. They will continue to do so - even with customs intervention (look at drugs).

Higher prices in affluent areas will come under pressure from cheap imports *until* wages in the other areas rise to create an equivalent cost. Companies should stop trying to fiddle with things and just let people buy where they can & want. Unless they're gloriously underselling in one region (more fool them) the effort required to prevent is probably not cost effective.

Who's betting Nintendo offer help with importing. They're doing everything else right...

Friends dont let friends buy Sony

[viking80]

I keep posting the "Friends dont let friends buy Sony" comment on most Sony related articles.

I now wonder if Sony are monitoring me. They certainly are modding these posts flaimbait consistently.

Are they going through my thrash, and obtaining my phone records as well?

Anyway I boldly repeat here again:

Much of the money you spend buying Sony gear goes to support anti consumer efforts from DRM, Infected CD's, Unusable due to DRM Blu-Ray HD-DVD. They may actually help kill the entire HD DVD effort.

Fellow /.ers, help me fight aganst the evil Sony agents and mod this up.

So much for open markets

[Nom du Keyboard]

So much for the whole concept of open markets.

I'm dubious of any true safety concerns. Does Sony want it shouted that: Sony sells unsafe PS3's everywhere in the world except the UK, because only UK law won't allow it!

If the PS3 is truly unsafe, are they going to be stopping travelers returning from other markets overseas and siezing their lawfully purchased PS3 consoles on safety concerns? I doubt it.

The only way you'll fix this in the UK is by a vote for people who will reliably overturn laws that screw the consumers at large to artifically protect monopolies. Should we shout, Is anyone in the UK listening?

What am I doing for my part? Not voting for John Kyl who instituted the Internet Gaming Ban in the USA, and had to sneak it through as part of another, more important, bill because no one wanted their vote on record over this issue.

Who else here in Slashdot land is doing their part, no matter how small, this year?

Let's break this down

[ContractualObligatio]

"Ultimately, we're trying to protect consumers from ..

.. being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera;"

- The PSP has a power supply for 100 - 240V, I'm told, and besides let's not pretend that Sony doesn't have to build all its various Playstations to be acceptable worldwide, shall we?

"is not - in PS3's case - backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software"

- again, similar situation all around the world, what does this have to do with anything?

"will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs"

- because YOU built in restrictions to fuck us over with!

"and will not be covered by warranty."

- strictly by your own decision, there's nothing to prevent you extending the manufacturer's warranty i.e. another way by which to fuck us over.

Perhaps a subtlety on the last point might be an expectation that a faulty unit would have to be returned to the importer - but that's the buyer's choice / risk to take. And it would be interesting if "grey" importers then found it profitable to set up local offices in rip-off parts of the world.

You know, in financial and commodity markets the principle of arbitrage is pretty well accepted. There's just no damn reason why manufacturers like Sony should be allowed to create articifical barriers to otherwise well accepted market mechanisms. As has been pointed out elsewhere, as long as people have to suck it up and bear it with market effects like outsourcing, the corporates shouldn't be able to give themselves exemptions.

Re:What's Up with Sony?

[ehrichweiss]

Either way, neither is correct. The original word is "kouchie". Musical Youth Group changed the lyrics to keep the drug references to a minimum for kids.

Imports always expensive

[Nazmun]

At least when you look from the perspective as a U.S. citizen. Locally bought consoles were always cheaper then having them shipped from overseas.

Re:Imports always expensive

[megalomaniacs4u]

Ah but this europe. In particular the UK the dollar is very weak at the moment I get nearly 2 USD for 1 GBP when I import DVDs from the states, other countries vary but generally providing you manage to bypass import duty & VAT* you can save a great deal of money.

Unfortunately thats why the R2 UK anime market is so feeble - it is a lot cheaper to buy R1 DVDs which often are released months (years) earlier.

[*] = Very random depend on the customs - sometimes stuff over the threshold will get through untaxed - I had $100 parcel come through untaxed and have yet to get stung for importing Japanese DVDs & CDs. NB the UK threshold is 18GBP which tends to be 30-36USD depending how weak the dollar is.

Just like U.S./Canadian Drugs

[SeaFox]

I'm dubious of any true safety concerns. Does Sony want it shouted that: Sony sells unsafe PS3's everywhere in the world except the UK, because only UK law won't allow it!

It's funny, this is the same thing happens with pharmaceuticals in the U.S. The industry doesn't want people importing Canadian drugs (which are much cheaper) and one thing mentioned is that they have concern the drugs do not meet U.S. quality standards.

I have yet to hear anyone ask if that's true doesn't that mean they are giving Candaians sub-quality prescription drugs. You think there would be a Canadian-consumer uproar with such simple logic.

Anyone got a link to the actual judgement?

[Curmudgeonlyoldbloke]

It would be useful to know exactly what law had been broken - the links that I can find just quote the judge saying that "the offer for sale had taken place not in Hong Kong but in the EEA". Is this just "Asda and Tesco vs Levi" again?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1261829.stm
has a summary of that (grey imports from the rest of the EEA legal; elsewhere not)

Also see:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/ cmselect/cmtrdind/380/38009.htm

http://www.patent.gov.uk/policy/policy-issues/poli cy-issues-trademarks/policy-issues-trademarks-para llel/policy-issues-trademarks-parallel-parallelcas elaw.htm
has a link to the judgement (those last two links may cause you to lose the will to stay awake, though).

If it IS just a trademark issue, what's to prevent some sort of "Iceweasel" solution to this? For example advertise the consoles as being of certain dimensions and able to play certain titles - but no more.

Re:Imports always expensive ... UK prices

[pbhj]

As a heads up ... in the UK you can usually guess a products price by using the dollar price. Effectively we're paying nearly twice as much as in the US. And we usually wait about 6 months longer to have a product available.

Doesn't matter to me. I can only afford one meal a day anyway.

What about other countries?

[protomala]

I'm curious to listen what Sony have to say about countries not served importing units.
You know, they never released any playstation here in Brazil.

You are delusional.. or something

[Ender Ryan]

I now wonder if Sony are monitoring me. They certainly are modding these posts flaimbait consistently.

No. *I* mod your posts down.

Are they going through my thrash, and obtaining my phone records as well?

A.) You are delusional. B.) You are not important.

Much of the money you spend buying Sony gear goes to support anti consumer efforts from DRM

Ditto for.. *every* consumer electronics, software, and media giant. Indeed, Microsoft is probably doing more than any other company to stuff DRM down our throats at the moment. Noone needs games and hi-def movies. Many people need to buy new Windows machines now and then. Why don't you go beat up on them in the Xbox 360 stories? Or do you? If not, then you're just a hypocrite with an axe to grind.

Welcome to rip-off Britain

[AmiMoJo]

This is simple price fixing. Everyone is at it...

For example, in the UK a Nintendo DS costs £110 with your choice of one crappy game. In Japan, the DS is around 16,000 yen, or about £71. That's £40 cheaper, less than 60% of the UK price. Sure, no free game, but £40 can buy you three new games for the DS.

The free game is either just a way of making price comparison impossible ("Sorry, we can't price match so-and-so because it's a different package") or adding "value" to an overpriced product, without costing the retailer much. In fact, you are helping the retailer to dump unsaleable stock.

Re:Welcome to rip-off Britain

[AmiMoJo]

Maybe they were ditching DS stock... I was looking to buy a DS-Lite this week and everywhere was £109 with one game... Except Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nintendo-Lite-Handheld-Con sole-Black/dp/B000FTQR8K/sr=8-4/qid=1161553768/ref =pd_bbs_sr_4/026-1104481-1180463?ie=UTF8 . But all the local shops were 109.

Re:What's Up with Sony?

[24-bit Voxel]

I teach video game art and design at a local college and I can attest to the opposite of this. For every person I talk to about Sony's attitude and the rootkit fiasco, they simply don't care. Every single one of them has said they will be getting a PS3 regardless of all this other bullshit. They grew up with PS just as the generation before them grew up with Atari and Nintendo and Sega.

They don't care how much it costs, they don't care about rootkits, and they certainly don't care if the CEO makes them into sheep. They want Final Fantasy, they want the PS3.

You are wrong to think that people won't buy this because of Sony's past behavior, they indeed will buy it. It's easy to decry it here on /. where anyone can go from star to stink with majority support, but real life isn't like slashdot, it is far far more stupid and careless.

My 2 cents.
Vox