Sony Takes Things Futher

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We all know about sony issuing cease and desist orders by the handfuls to people importng psp's to europe, but it seems sony wants to take things futher.

Not only has sony noe employed an agency to take down auctions of psps on ebay(read this(clicky)), but now it seems they want to come after YOU, and YOUR psp.

According to the guardian, sony is demanding that importers give them the details of people who have imported psps so that they can have them impounded....

....meaning that those who paid 200 pund or more will be left empty handed, and without their beloved psps.(source)

A step too far from sony??
I think so...

Thought/comments??

The only reason Sony even cares about this is that they don't want anymore people then they have to buying them...ironic I know, but if you think about, when the PSP hits Europe it will cost even more then the US and much More than Japan. Every person who imports takes money from Sony's pocket...and with the PSP costing them a fortune, they need every dime they can get.

So basically their cracking down, so that people wait and buy the PSP at the higher European price tag, and the people who imported, touch luck for you! Smilie

...

This is low. What a bunch of pricks. The cease and desist orders were bad enough, but to go and try and find people who bought the system and try to wrench it from their hands? It's like going up to a child with a new toy and wrestling them for it. Absolutely fucking pathetic of Sony, they're getting the sales from other territories for it from the import companies, as I've said before it's not as though their precious PSPs are being stolen. Fair enough, they want high sales figures when it comes out in Europe, and it will do anyway, but here's a novel concept that could have netted them even higher sales - it's called 'getting your product out on time without fudging up'.

If I was one of these companies that Sony are taking a stand against, I wouldn't stock the PSP again, or at least restrict my sales of them, certainly I'd be losing money but if they're going to be so arrogant and bullish about the matter, why should they expect people to sell it again? I'd certainly have less Sony presence in the shop as a whole as well. The government would get bashed for hounding somebody in this way, criminals would get imprisoned for using bully tactics like this, so why the fuck can an electronics company get away with it? Perhaps I'm taking this a little too far in my comparisons, but I stand by my opening statement. What a bunch of pricks.

EDIT: 3am spelling errors.

[ Edited by Mason on 2005/6/24 3:15 ]

It's not that they don't want them in Europ, it's that the're just late, right?
Isn't that their fault then? They shouldn't be able to react like this.

I tell you, when people start getting PSPs taken away, there gonna wanna stop supporting Sony. I think It's a bad move by them.

Exactly, but I remember hearing that Sony said they wouldn't be going after those who already owned a PSP.

Basically for those who can't understand why Sony are so desperate to crack down on this:

Say Sony are losing $50 for each PSP sold. Thats about

Wow! Please come back here more often, auzdafluff. You are brilliant!

At the expense of the British public, once again. Why don't they have it selling in America at a price so it can make a profit? Once again, we're the chumps who have to stump up so other territories can get it cheaper, and to add insult to injury they're now trying to take away consoles that some people got through use of common sense to make a saving. It's horse shit. I hope the media gives them a caining for this, but as we know it probably won't happen - it's the almighty Playstation brand afterall.

Twats...

Actually, the problem is with the brand. I can see them using the excuse (and it is a genuine excuse) that the PSP trademark is owned by another UK company and as such, PSP's can't legally be sold in this country without a first the permission of the trademark holder (Psion I believe) and secondly royality payments being made.

As for hiding it when the 5-0 come round. The excuse, oh it broke so I threw it out, if they have a warrant holds as much water as "Yer, sure I had 50 bags of Crack Cocaine, but I flushed them down the toilet before you got here"

Anyone fancy importing Playstation 3?

[ Edited by Focus - 3 on 2005/6/24 7:28 ]

hahaha.

auzdafluff wrote: Actually, the problem is with the brand. I can see them using the excuse (and it is a genuine excuse) that the PSP trademark is owned by another UK company and as such, PSP's can't legally be sold in this country without a first the permission of the trademark holder (Psion I believe) and secondly royality payments being made.
As for hiding it when the 5-0 come round. The excuse, oh it broke so I threw it out, if they have a warrant holds as much water as 'Yer, sure I had 50 bags of Crack Cocaine, but I flushed them down the toilet before you got here'

But would they really get a warrent

i dont think its actually illegal to buy these things; it might be illegal to sell them, but you cant really stop it from happening.

Anyway, Auzdafluff, reports are that sony is losing upwards of $200 on each unit- which would make sense to me when you take into account all the stuff in there. A PDA with equivalent features would cost far more than the psp.

As for me..meh..I dont care, bought my psp in the US, so there be no way to track me!
Either way, if sony actually do this, then they are just total dicks- I mean do they really think people will then go and buy the european PSP after having been ripped off by sony? I wouldnt.. I mainly bought it for multimedia stuff, and there are many alternative devices.

Besides that, the cost of actually sending out all these people and obtaining all these records is probably greater than the amount it costs them to allow importing. Sony should be concentrating on getting their damned act together and shipping the psp here, not punishing those who werent going to wait.


edit: besides, if sony really wanted to fuck up importers, they could just alter the firmware of the european psp's so that they wouldnt play U.S./Japanese games, rather than obtaining warrants to search peoples home's.. besides, I'm fairly sure the government wont allow a company to get search warrants based on their own business problems; can you imagine the headlines- "sony tore up my house looking for my sons psp which he legally bought".. that could do them no end of harm.

[ Edited by GR781 on 2005/6/24 10:21 ]

They ain't taking them from from people, I knew they weren't, I remember hearing Sony deny they would do, but what I was saying was that should they have decided to they could have legal justification.

This is low. What a bunch of pricks.

0/\0.

If Sony sink any lower they'll have to reach up to tie their own shoelaces...

It's silly that we have to pay extra if you ask me, but then it's always been like that. When I went into town yesterday there was a poster for the PSP in HMV saying "gaurenteed to sell out! Preorder NOW." and I asked the guy working there if I could sue them if it didn't sell out and he said "sure" Smilie . No-one buy a PSP from HMV just so that I can sue their asses!

It doesn't sound very legal to me; forcing addresses out of retailers, and then going over and yanking a paid product away from someone.

To be fair, a lot of these people might not be aware that they're buying an imported product. Parents might walk in and buy one for their child, some guy completely new to gaming might decided to splash out. Taking products away from them is bad enough, leaving them empty handed is even worse.

Despite the fact that really Sony got themselves into this mess by not releasing the system soon enough after US and Japan, I think they're entitled to do something about this

Tom Barry [ Reviewer - Editor - Resident Sim-Racer @ Cubed3.com ] 

i Think this is stupid as it wil make song believers turn from there consoles and trade song for nintendo the best hanheld gaming service around.

well they could do this if they wanted to waste even more money as to just track down the people who imported their product would cost a large sum of money besides if sony were to yank a psp out of your hands perhaps they could be charged with theft.

-Have you any idea what it's like to be a Fembot living in a Manbot's Manputer's world?
-What?

Obviously simply taking the PSP's off people is NOT legal. They could, for example, force the company the bought the product from to trade the PSP for a refund and then stop the compnay importing any more PSP's (I think anyway)

GR781 wrote: besides, if sony really wanted to fuck up importers, they could just alter the firmware of the european psp's so that they wouldnt play U.S./Japanese games, rather than obtaining warrants to search peoples home's.. besides, I'm fairly sure the government wont allow a company to get search warrants based on their own business problems; can you imagine the headlines- 'sony tore up my house looking for my sons psp which he legally bought'.. that could do them no end of harm.
[ Edited by GR781 on 2005/6/24 10:21 ]

From what I've been told by guys I know still in retail, some of the SoE trade advisors have "leaked" the fact that the european PSP will be region locked for movies AND games. As it was merely said by the SoE employee and could just be a scare tactic to stop the sale of import games its not a fact but defnitely something to think about.

Matthew Evans [ Writer :: Moderator :: King of Impartiality :: Lord of the 15min Thread ] As the wind blows the sand to cover the camel's tracks so does time move to cover the Lord's.
Rejoice for the Lord will taketh his quarter and give much back to his followers.

Its all scare tactics. They want to stop retailers, and scare kids into buying them.

Honest to god, this is the only reason I havent bought a PSP yet. I dont want to support this kind of company.

See no Wiivil
Hear no Wiivil
Speak no Wiivil

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/06/24/news_6128143.html

Sony are denying the whole thing apparently.

"but I seriously doubt that Sony would pursue any criminal action against individuals

Doesnt sound very convincing(ie he doesnt know) also is impounding them a criminal action??

[ Edited by howzy22 on 2005/6/26 22:29 ]

It'd end up in court and get very complicated. Odds are the court would say, 'your stupid fault'. They (Sony) have to prove malicious intent IIRC. They might get the stores with that but the buyers? Not a chance in hell.

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