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Sony PlayStation 3 Imports Temporarily Banned In Europe
tekgoblin writes "Looks like Sony is in some trouble in Europe. LG recently complained about Sony and filed a US patent dispute over their Blu-ray technology. Now they have been granted a preliminary injunction in the matter in Europe. This injunction prevents the PlayStation 3 from currently being imported to Europe. For at least the next 10 days, every PlayStation that is imported will be seized by government officials."
This week would be an excellent time to put your PS3 up for sale on EBay!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Karma, much? Your tight grip of copyright and patents are biting you in the ass now.
"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."
-- Steve Jobs
Maybe this is what Mr. Jobs was thinking of?
After all they included OtherOS to be able to claim it as a general purpose computer and avoid a tax.
Now its gone. Bet they're still not paying that tax to the EU.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
. . . . fuck Sony
That.
I hate patents (not just software patents; the entire system is flawed), but it is hard to feel any sympathy for Sony.
Government officials recently requisitioned several million Euros in Blu-ray movies in order to "test" the seized equipment to make sure they could actually play Blu-ray movies. A second requisitioned was later placed for popcorn.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Karma is a bitch ain't it. Mess with peoples property and you get the same. I bet everything I own that Sony will not be able to put 2 and 2 together, they will push on to "ensure gamers the experience they deserve" by using the court system to make their profit margin look good.
They were just playing games. And the Sony company lose his turn and will be listed in the Hall of Shame...
After all, I love Sony products.
Maybe they will blame pirating and remove BR drives from all ps3's.
Because it's not really 'in Europe' yet; it's just sitting in a container on a ship / in the harbor (probably of Rotterdam), or in boxes at the airport (Schiphol or, though unlikely, Rotterdam or Eindhoven), and probably hasn't been cleared for entry / onward transport.
Think of the situation as landing in an airport. You fly from Paris to New York. You land 'in New York' - but until you're through all the security checks/customs, you're not actually -in- New York yet and they can send you right on back to Paris or detain you for no particular reason, etc.
More like "Anonymous Idiot." Do you really think the OP was encouraging Sony to put the PS3s which are on container ships on eBay? Here's a clue: supply and demand. The supply has just dried up, at least for a week and a half. If you're a European PS3 owner, this might present a selling opportunity via eBay.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
The way Sony treated its customers who wanted to use OtherOS to try to protect their intellectual property is the right way for LG to treat Sony: take it away from them! Since filing complaints and not getting justice, it makes me feel good to see that Sony might have to pay.
It shouldn't be possible to use patent courts to seize a legitimate manufactured product and destroy a business over a patent dispute. Assuming the patents don't cover a significant portion of the IP that is in the device (aka the patent isn't for a whole playstation, it's a patent for a tiny piece of the technology) then the court should be limited to ordering that Sony pay a reasonable royalty (if the patent is small percent, then say 1% of gross revenues) into an escrow account pending appeals over the dispute.
Now, if Sony refuses to pay, then I suppose seizing product is the only choice. But, I'm in favor of compulsory licensing : if I patent an idea, I MUST sell you a license to the IP and the license fee cannot be more than a proportional percentage of the value of the product or proportional to my R&D costs, whichever is greater. Same with copyrights
Hence the (admittedly misspelled) title, "Good news, Europeans!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Here is your chance.
Just make sure the PS3 power adapter has the right voltage and right wall plug for Europe, and you are off to go.
New Economic Perspectives
If it doesn't play BluRay discs, does it still violate the patent(s)? Sony has removed features in the past. Maybe they'll update the firmware on the ones they haven't sold yet so they can't read discs anymore, and send another update to everyone else. I guess it could still download games and stream movies from online. It would be amusing to see them just remove all of the original advertised features one-by-one until the only thing the PS3 can do is hold doors open. Well, amusing except for the fact that I own one...
If you're a European PS3 owner, this might present a selling opportunity via eBay.
Or if you're a non-European PS3 owner who is smart enough to label at as something other than a PS3? ...
An Xbox perhaps?
I bet they are going to put Linux on them a build a giant cluster.
Oh, wait...
AccountKiller
(slightly redundant) I have to agree with you. Patents were introduced to stimulate innovation and research but all it really does today is stimulate the front pockets of lawyers. I want to say "why after so many years have they decided to wait and sue Sony?" but Sony does sue pretty much everyone so I don't feel that bad or care for the reason why LG waited so long.
Patents now last so long and have been around for so long that you can't build anything anymore without using someone elses invention. Ever heard of "If I seen furthest, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants"? Well, with the patent system that is, "If I sold the most gadgets it is because I paid off everyone else".
Worse, once patents were real physical products that had to be specific enough to make an actual product from them, you could LOOK at a patent and work around it. But now that concepts have become valid patents, you can't. So rather then a screw being patented, the very idea of fixing to things together is patented so it doesn't matter if you come up with completely new system for doing it, a better system, a more efficient system, you are STILL infringing. EXACTLY what the patent system was NOT supposed to do. It was supposed to encourage invention. Patent on the diesel engine? Make a petrol engine. A LOT of combustion engine tech early on was developed to get around patents, so we got lots of different engines and the market could then pick the most efficient for their use.
Sony and others are however so tied to the current patent system they cannot let it go even if it is killing them. Why not? Without the patent system, Sony would be Sony'ed. What is that? Sony was once a toy maker from Japan. Making crap copies cheaply before SLOWLY improving them. Well, if you call the re-creation of the Japanese economy post WW2 slow.
A complex patent system favors the big companies who can use their patent portfolio as weapons. Remove it, and ANYONE can compete. You wouldn't have needed a billion dollar company to launch a new phone OS, a couple of hackers could have done it. The billions of Google are not for development cost, but legal team costs.
The patent system needs reform but the mayor players are all so indebt to it, that it would take an outsider to break it up. Maybe China can do it. They gain nothing from the patent system and if Western society continues to collapse (not actually building anything anymore except patents) then China might loose interest in pretending to obey the system.
Something needs to change before all progress is gone to countries where you can still spend more money on development then on lawyers.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Did anyone else read the title and got their hopes up about the EU banning the PS3 because they took away the OtherOS option?
Oh, no, it's not hard at all. I feel no sympathy for Sony, whatsoever. See? Easiest decision I ever had to make regarding Sony.
An XBox is still over the 22 customs threshold so they'll look inside the box just to see how much money they can squeeze out of you.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
48 million consoles.
69 million PSN accounts. 17 million PlayStation Home accounts.
4 million MOVE controllers.
The PS3 Slim was introduced in 2009.
Meaning that more than half of all PS3 consoles have been sold without so much as a whisper of support for the OtherOS, SACD, or PS2 emulation.
On the other hand, the five year old PS3 remains feature competitive with high end DVD and Blu-Ray players.
It supports 1080p Netflix streams with 5.1 theater surround sound.
It supports Hulu Plus in HD.
It supports Sony's new Music Unlimited service. 6 million tracks. $4-$10/mo.
--- and it plays games.
These are the features which sell the product.
I have yet to see anyone post hard numbers - credible numbers - for Linux installs or homebrew gaming on the PS3.
I would not be in the least surprised if there were more kids watching their twentieth re-play of "Monsters vs Aliens" in stereographic 3D on their Dad's Bravia HDTV.
1. remove Bluray player. That will get rid of the patent issue with LG and prevent GeoHot to run anything from discs.
2. redesign the plastic case to a slimmier one and create a huge marketing campaign to sell the new improved console.
3. patch all existing PS3s so that they don't run any bluray anymore and threaten user base that they won't be able to play online if they don't patch
Do you know how many european citizens took out loans on their home and car purchases in japanes yen, when the euro currency was way overvalued? Do you know how difficult their current financial situation is? The Crisantheneum Throne can adjust yen valuation a little and the whole European Union will be down on her knees and begging forgiveness.
The EU is very dumb to fiddle with Sony and Japan, because those two are much larger and powerful than Lucky Goldstar (LG) and South Korea. Japan is 5x the size of South Korea and Sony is a giant zaibatsu on her own.
News just in: Massive amounts of drugs and counterfeit goods are flooding Europe.
Sources suggest it's because all customs inspectors have been busy playing GTA for the last week.
This is so dangerous that LG seems a second SCO to me. If Sony doesn't want to settle and LG loses (which is probable, since those are US patents in a EU court), they'll have to pay a huge amount of money to Sony for this seizure.
I'm no grammar nazi by any means, but "imported to"? Shouldn't that be "exported to" or "imported into"?
Lucky Goldstar?
So it's a sequel to Lucky Star?
even if they ban it for a year, it doesn't matter becouse they'll buy it as it had just been released
Web Designers Ma
It is about a daily occurrence that LG is appealed for, and how many suit will LG have?
The patent is a lifeline of the electronic system maker.
It may be said that a person criticizing Sony is crazy.
They would need a copy off ice-cream, oops, I mean coolstuff :-)
Because it's not really 'in Europe' yet
Yes it is. The original poster said this:
Topic: Good news, Eurpeans!
This week would be an excellent time to put your PS3 up for sale on EBay!
I am not devoid of humor.