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."

Comments

Hey Sony?

[Shikaku]

Karma, much? Your tight grip of copyright and patents are biting you in the ass now.

Re:Hey Sony?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not at all. These sorts of patent disputes behind huge IP giants are just part of the game, and all the parties involved know that quite well. I'd give it 50/50 odds that the attorneys on the opposing sides had a nice dinner together after their racquetball game last week.

If you think Sony or some other company is ever going to react to an incident like this by suddenly snapping awake thinking "My God, maybe these patents aren't such a good idea after all," then you just don't know how this whole thing is intended to work. These companies all SHARE a common goal, and that's to completely exclude all new competition from the marketplace. In order to do that they need to brandish their weapons on a regular basis. They put on their costumes and get out in public and make like they're trying to kill each other (wink wink).

None of these corporations is ever going to experience any serious side effect of these patent "wars." War is such a silly name for it anyway. It's more like a nice aggressive game of shirts-vs-skins (pick sport of your choosing). You act all tough on the field, but you're all drinking beers together after the game.

Re:Hey Sony?

[marcello_dl]

> hackers who want to do different things to the console than what Sony intended

and: purchasers who want to do what was advertised by sony at purchase, i.e. run linux

and I don`t give a rat`s ass about what sony intends, I expect to own what I buy.

Bag of Hurt

[Anonymous Coward]

"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?

Re:Now slap them with tax evasion

[Frangible]

Do you have a cite for this? Reason I ask is, from what I read Sony tried this with PS2 Linux and their attempt at tax exemption was rejected by the EU. I could not find anything definitive on Google either way.

Some incorrectly speculate it was used as an attempt to help classify the PS2 as a computer to achieve tax exempt status from certain EU taxes that apply to game consoles and not computers (It was the Yabasic included with EU units that was intended to do that).[citation needed] Despite this, Sony lost the case in June 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2

Of course, that also says "citation needed"...

Re:Good news, Eurpeans!

[Jaysyn]

Not weird really. The injunction is against Sony, not the merchant that is selling them.

The patent system is just a bag of hurt

[SmallFurryCreature]

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.