[News] Ahahaha (lik-sang's CLOSED)

Lik-Sang.com Out of Business due to Multiple Sony Lawsuits

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OUT OF BUSINESS NOTICE

Hong Kong, October 24th of 2006 - Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful.

As of today, Lik-Sang.com will not be in the position to accept any new orders and will cancel and refund all existing orders that have already been placed. Furthermore, Lik-Sang is working closely with banks and PayPal to refund any store credits held by the company, and the customer support department is taking care of any open transactions such as pending RMAs or repairs and shipping related matters. The staff of Lik-Sang will make sure that nobody will get hurt in the crossfire of this ordeal.

A Sony spokesperson declined to comment directly on the lawsuit against Lik-Sang, but recently went on to tell Gamesindustry.biz 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; is not - in PS3's case - backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software; will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs; and will not be covered by warranty".

Lik Sang strongly disagrees with Sony's opinion that their customers need this kind of protection and pointed out that PSP consoles shipped from Lik-Sang contained genuine Sony 100V-240V AC Adapters that carry CE and other safety marks and are compatible world wide. All PSP consoles were in conformity with all EU and UK consumer safety regulations.

Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe's very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan's official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). The list of PSP related Sony Europe orders reads like the who's who of the videogames industry, and includes 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), just to name a few.

"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', few dominating retailers from the UK probably will rejoice the news, but everybody else in the gaming world lost something today."

Good job Sony.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Soluzar

I guess there will always be other places to buy imports and accessories from, but it's not hard to imagine this move by Sony being the start of a trend. I wonder just how long before video game importing/modding is impossible, because you simply can't buy the stuff anywhere online?

Well, unless they manage to bribe ebay into removing certain auctions from being listed, importing won't come to a complete hault. Meanwhile I'll use play-asia and continue to use play-asia, since I haven't found anywhere else that does a better jobo f getting games to me.

Just a side note, I've ordered over 50 things from play-asia and they're all arrived exactly 5 days later. Except for ONE and we had a public holiday here, I dunno. Pretty good service there.

I didn't have anything against lik-sang but yeah, this sucks.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Soluzar

I suppose you are right, but it is still possible for Sony to make life more difficult for the import gamer. I prefer Play-Asia myself, for actual games, but are they immune somehow, to Sony lawsuits? Who knows.

No, play-asia don't ship PSP stuff to europe.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by ApOcaLyPSe_1985

This fucking sucks... I loved Lik-Sang. They we're probably the cheapest shop for importing stuff, bundled with great customer support. Thanks Sony, now please DIE.

Bah... are there any good alternatives besides Play-Asia?

There's always yesasia or the ebay shops, but I can't recommend yesasia.

I'll just stick with play-asia for now. But I don't think anywhere in the world sells imports with free shipping aside from lik-sang.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by ApOcaLyPSe_1985

Thanks a lot . I'm curious about Yesasia though, what's wrong with them?

I purchased Sega Ages 2500 Vol 25: Gunstar Treasure Box and Last Blade 2 from them both at once. After asking them if they've had any other people purchase items from their store who lived in New Zealand, I waited. So I sent them another email 5 days later, and I waited.

2 weeks later they contacted me, didn't answer my question, and said "Gunstar Treasure Box is out of stock, do you still want Last Blade 2?" so I cancelled. It's a disappointment because I still don't have these games, but I couldn't be bothered since I didn't know how long they'd take to reach me, after already waiting 2 weeks for an email response.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Like I have already said, play-asia are allowed to sell PSPs because they've signed a deal with Sony agreeing that they won't ship them to europe.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

In short, lik-sang started selling PSPs internationally in November '04, and it wasn't released into europe until many months later. Lik-sang received a lot of business due to people from europe importing the handhelds, and because of the release date, Sony suffered.

So this "not compatible with PS3" concept is basically rubbish. They're just trying to get back at lik-sang for their loss during 04-05.

FELIPE NO

Acer, it isn't lik-sang's fault at all.

Sony felt as if lik-sang were undermining the company by allowing people to import PSPs (american and japanese models) to europe. Lik-sang must've made a lot of profit selling PSPs into europe because this isn't the first time Sony have tried to get lik-sang closed down.

In 2002, lik-sang was sued for selling modchips internationally. Their site went offline temporarily and they came back, minus the modchips.

They're really fucking up hard. Shortly after this happened, they recalled a quarter of a million batteries from Sony laptops.

and they knew about it lol

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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Sony sent Lik Sang multiple cease and desist letters demanding they stop selling PSP hardware which Sony has the right to do under trademark law. Lik Sang ignored all of these and as a result Sony took legal action against them.

Except lik-sang weren't doing anything wrong in the first place. Are you meaning to say that if I had of been in japan at the time of the release of the PSP, purchased one, came back to europe and sold it, I could be sued because the product isn't released in that country? That's bullshit.

I'm pretty sure lik-sang isn't the only online store that ships or has shipped PSP handhelds to europe.

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Lik Sang also has a terrible history of shutting down to avoid having to pay out lawsuit fines only to reappear later on. I think Sony is far from a model corporation, but I also hold no respect for Lik Sang as a company either.

As far as I know they've only done this once, which was what I already said. They shut down and came back later minus their modchips and continued to sell their products. I'd hardly call this a "terrible history" but actually a really smart move.

They stopped selling modchips, and that's fine. But modchips are questionable, unlike chargers and PSP consoles. The PSP is region free, so does that mean we shouldn't import PSP games from other countries just because they have a different ESRB rating, or because they aren't currently out in your location?

That means that any game which isn't going to be released here/is in a single country, will remain in that company meaning developers and publishers will lose money because of this. Like the lik-sang article said, Sony could do this for anything, including their games, in america or anywhere around the world.

Sony are trying to pull the strings here. At first they want people to support Sony products by buying from retailers, but on the other hand they are preventing people from doing so internationally, meaning that they're going to lose even more profit just by shutting lik-sang down.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by FallDragon

I could care less about lik-sang. Never ordered from them, I'm not much into imports (read: I've never imported).

So basically you're admitting that you're willing to defend Sony even though you don't use and don't care for the counterparty.

Wow that's not biased at all.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

FailDragon, you realize that half of the time (if not all, I can't recall) lik-sang didn't show up?

From my understanding there was very little communication between lik-sang and Sony, and basically Sony were jealous of lik-sang's profit making from their products. It's stupid to think lik-sang were at fault when you have a region free handheld released everywhere but europe, and then Sony cries crocodile tears.

If you lived in a country where you had the ability to import a device, which would be able to play your own countries format, yet you wouldn't be getting it through a retailer, would you do it? I know I would, simply for the fact that there's no other alternative available. And that's what happened.

People are forgetting that this isn't about selling PSPs, but Sony complaining about AC adaptors. It's funny how Sony have managed to bring down lik-sang due to AC adaptors, when it's pretty clear that they've wanted to do that right from 2004.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.