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Lik-Sang Is Out Of Business
AKAImBatman writes "Thanks to Sony's heavy handed tactics, popular game importer Lik-Sang is closing its doors. All Lik-Sang customers are having their orders cancelled and refunded. Any attempt to place a new order redirects your web browser to the news of Lik-Sang's demise." From the announcement: "'Today is Sony Europe victory about PSP, tomorrow is Sony Europe's ongoing pressure about PlayStation 3. With this precedent set, next week could already be the stage for complaints from Sony America about the same thing, or from other console manufacturers about other consoles to other regions, or even from any publisher about any specific software title to any country they don't see fit. It's the beginning of the end... of the World as we know it', stated Pascal Clarysse, formerly known as the Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang.com. 'Blame it on Sony. That's the latest dark spot in their shameful track record as gaming industry leader. The Empire finally won, a few dominating retailers from the UK probably will rejoice the news, but everybody else in the gaming world lost something today.'" Many thanks to Sony for ruining it for the rest of us. I hope that your business model makes up for the customer goodwill you're lighting on fire today. Update: 10/24 21:34 GMT by Z : Eurogamer has Sony's response to Lik-Sang's accusations.
If you're not already Boycotting Sony for their misdeeds, then I call upon you to stop purchasing ALL Sony products. Yes, that means no PSP, PS3, or PS2 stuff. (The PS2 and PSP games can be purchased used without majorly impacting a boycott, but it's better if anything Sony sits on the shelf.) More importantly, though, we have to hit Sony where it hurts! Which means no more Sony movies, music, and television.
That means that we can't watch, purchase, or rent popular movies like:
It also means that we need to stop watching popular television shows like:
Understandably, some of these are very entertaining pictures/shows that I (and I'm sure many others) would enjoy seeing. Unfortunately, a complete boycott means that every Sony product line must fail. So I ask you all, politely and humbly, will you boycott Sony? There is no excuse for their behavior, and I cannot in good conscience allow my dollars to support that behavior. If you feel the same way, then I would ask you to LOUDLY proclaim that you are joining the boycott.
Thank you.
P.S. If anyone has Sony contact info, please post it. A flood of angry but well-worded letters will help Sony pay attention to our displeasure.
P.P.S. Read the Lik-Sang announcement for yourself! Apparently, Sony Europe's execs are big customers of Lik-Sang!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lik-sang
You are only hurting your business, and complementing your competition.
Just like the above posters, I will not recommend nor buy anything from Sony. They are a hack company, and I'm done with them.
I wonder if play-asia.com are worried?
Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for an hour. Set him on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
For anyone who isn't very familiar of Lik-Sang, they were a Hong Kong based company who would ship video games all over the world. Easily one of (if not the) best import websites on the internet.
Out of my many transactions with them, there was an error only once. A simple call to customer service and they quickly corrected everything. This is truely a sad sad day.
This isn't the first time Lik-Sang have run into trouble. They changed hands a year or two ago when they were being sued for selling mod-chips. I thought they'd at least be safe now, but no. Perhaps Sony should have funnelled the money they spent on the lawsuit into making their SoundStage software half-decent and producing an MP3 player that doesn't use their shitty ATRAC format.
No, but as they mention in their explanation, the foreseeable future of this is additional lawsuits striking at their other markets. Rather than run into the ground, they're doing the responsible thing and closing up while they still have the resources to refund/service their customers. Nice to see a company being responsible in this regard.
Sony suing Lik-Sang is one of the most stupid things I've seen a company do.
And besides that, it is also a obvious example of double standards. Even Sony directors were huge clients of Lik-Sang.
For example (as stated in the note):
- Ray Maguire (Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd)
- Alan Duncan (UK Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd)
- Chris Sorrell (Creative Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd)
- Rob Parkin (Development Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited)
I'll be avoiding Sony stuff after this...
-- SouNerd.com
I also use a site called 'Jandaman's Import Video Game Accessories', but I'm not sure if they're still online.
The lawsuit in question wasn't about infringement enabling devices (read: modchips...). It was about selling PSP's to the UK without Sony's permission. Completely different thing altogether.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
"Free trade" would be a one-page agreement saying "There shall be no restrictions on trade between our countries." Signed: the president, the prime minister, the king, etc.
What we have is not free trade, but is instead "free-er trade". As such it is full of compromises which restrict our freedom.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
No it's says that because it's a "Dual-Disc" release meaning it's a double sided "flipper" disc with one side Audio CD and the other side DVD (either DVD Audio or DVD Video). these discs change the location of the audio layer from a depth of 1.2mm to .6 mm which means some players will have trouble reading it... hence the warning.
Collector's Edition
We live in a capitalist system. In such a system if Sony can sue the ass off LikSang, and they feel that will increase their revenue, then they should. However capitalism only works if you have a strong legal system that protects the public at large. We should really be blaming our governments and our legal system for allowing this to happen.
They can indeed work, and have worked in the past. Just ask Proctor and Gamble.
If a company takes some controversial practice that upsets enough people that they boycott, then it does not have to drive the company into unprofitability to be effective. Sony has a duty to its stockholders to maximize profits? They aren't getting as much of those as they could be if people are purposely avoiding their products simply because Sony is selling them.
The things that make it difficult for a boycott against Sony to build up steam to the point where it could be effective are:
- Sony is a conglomerate of a different nature than P&G, they are in many businesses that are not readily identified with Sony, of varying degrees of evil. Lots of people use Sony products who will not know about the boycott, or care about Lik-Sang. It could severely affect, however, their video game business, on which the future of the company is being staked. Lots of the culture of the United States, ultimately, has its source in Sony, which means to completely boycott them would mean leading a somewhat monkish existence. Which I'm sure will come as no great change for us Slashdotters.
- The will of the fairly anarchic geek community. "Yeah, I hate Sony with da passion and I'd certainly never by-- oh look Spiderman 3 is coming out!" It's harder to get geeks riled up to, say, Moral Majority or George W. levels of ire because they're so --don't laugh-- reasonable on the average. They must be more certain a drastic action is right before they'll take it, and are more capable than the average of deciding its rightness for themselves.
- Bullheadedness at Sony. The boycotters must be willing to accept that, if a boycott does significantly affect Sony's profits, then it has worked even if Sony rides that boycott all the way down the drain.
- The popular perception that boycotts don't work. I'm doing my bit to help against that, right now.
As someone who has worked on many of them over the last 5-6 years, I can tell you that the Vaio (at least the laptop line) was never a great product.
Actually a few days ago the Japanese minister of trade, Akira Amarai, publicly expressed similar concerns. He is worried about Sony's long term competitiveness as well as the effect that the poor reputation of the Sony brand has had on all Japanese electronics in general.
Monstar L
What on Earth are you smokin'?
I used to sell Sony batteries in my retail store. I had no contract with Sony. I did not need Sony's permission. Sony didn't even know I existed; and liked it that way.
I could have sold Sony TVs, Game machines, whatever on the same terms.
I bought them from someone who owned them. I resold them. It's a pretty straightforward equation. Sony did not rely on contract issues in the lawsuit (if Lik-Sang got their stuff under contract from Sony, Sony could have just stopped selling to them. Problem solved).
No, Sony invoked consumer protection law; just as consumer protection law would now prevent me from selling certain . . . Sony batteries.
KFG
Play-Asia.com is probably the next biggest video game importer I can think of. though they're more heavy on the games while Lik-Sang was more heavy on the hardware...
I think a lot of people don't even realize that Lik-Sang manufactured a number of their own controller adapters under the "SmartJoy" name, Not only will they stop importing products but you'll have a hard time finding anymore playstation to Gamecube adapters, and other great products like the SmartJoy frag which allowed you to use a keyboard and mouse with the Xbox.
Collector's Edition
"A good pair of running shoes is going to set you back at least $100, no matter what. If you buy anything cheaper, you're simply risking injury."
It is simply untrue to claim that inexpensive running shoes come with the risk of injury. Sorry to drift off-topic, but this is an oft repeated falsehood that I once believed myself, and I'd like to share what I've since learned. Review literature on the subject concludes that the only reliable predictors for injury are experience level, training load, and history of previous injury. In particular, a sudden increase in training load often results in injury, and one might speculate that beginners are more prone to this error.
There is no evidence that cushioning or motion control technologies have done anything to reduce the incidence of injury over the years. Indeed, some groups, including westerners on concrete, run in bare feet, without obviously higher injury rates than those wearing "good" running shoes, though peer-reviewed studies are scarce. The biomechanics of running and running injuries are simply not well understood. As such it's difficult to claim that any particular design can reduce injury rates.
There is no evidence that cushioning or motion control technologies have done anything to reduce the incidence of injury over the years. Indeed, some groups, including westerners on concrete, run in bare feet, without obviously higher injury rates than those wearing "good" running shoes, though peer-reviewed studies are scarce. The biomechanics of running and running injuries are simply not well understood. As such it's difficult to claim that any particular design can reduce injury rates.
Well, "evidence" didn't cure my shinsplits. But custom orthotics and a good pair of motion-control running shoes did. I haven't had shinsplints at all since I made the switch, so even if it is bunk, it worked for me, for whatever reason.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
I don't know Lik-Sang too well myself, but this might go a little way towards replacing them - http://www.play-asia.com/ They've still got some Dreamcast stuff, heh.. 3
"Lik-Sang did not contest this case (i.e. they did not turn up and therefore incurred no legal costs). We have been awarded substantial costs against Lik-Sang which have not been paid," the statement claims. "We would therefore strongly deny that our actions have had anything to do with this website closing (we assume the legal entity is still trading), and would suggest that this release is sour grapes on behalf of Lik-Sang which is aimed to belittle Sony Computer Entertainment and the British judicial system that found against them."
The mention of "substantial costs" suggests the size of the judgment may have been what caused Lik-Sang to close its doors.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
Also, interestingly, calling for a boycott is actually illegal in some countries. Like France. I'm wondering about other countries.
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may u!sh 2 sm!le at dz!z bad nn.!m!tat!ion
Perhaps you were unaware that Sony has spent the last few years having their legal department bleed Lik Sang dry with lawsuits in a multitude of countries?
Like this case in Australia where Sony bled Lik Sang of untold legal fees and finally pressured Lik Sang to pay Sony undisclosed $$$ in order to drop the assault, and this completed battle over the issue showing that Lik Sang was in the right and their business was perfectly legal, and that Sony had bled Lik Sang of all that money with an INVALID lawsuit?
Sony is the Bad Guy here directing their international legal staff to wage an ongoing international legal assault, and tiny Lik Sang is the hero here for managing to fight the good fight against a vexatious litigant for as long as they did, with Sony filing god-knows how many different lawsuits in god-knows how many different countries and eventually bleeding Lik Sang to death.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Even better: they've started to assign custom part numbers based on not only region but even retailer. So, if Target advertises "we will beat any price on this product!" and you bring in an ad from WalMart, turns out that they're not the same product, because one is an (for example) Olympus 340DL digital camera part number AO56789-123, and the other is an Olympus 340DL digital camera part number AO56789-456.
WalMart actively pressures its suppliers to do this, I've read. Nice, huh?
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
It's only illegal in France if the call comes from (rival) companies or targets a particular company.
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*insert sig here*