First of all, Sony's claim that Lik-Sang didn't turn up and therefore incurred no legal cost is absolute nonsense. Lik-Sang's legal representatives spent over a year to vigorously contest the UK's court jurisdiction until the last moment, produced witness statements and documents, and replied to Sony's allegations about parallel importation and copyright infringement. Plenty of documents were sent back and forth from Hong Kong all the way to the UK, and it was also argued to the London High Court that Sony has launched duplicate actions in different countries, but all to no avail. The court case in Hong Kong is still ongoing, and Lik-Sang as well as its lawyers spent hundreds and hundreds of hours trying to catch up with Sony's mass of documents and claims. As a result, two different High Court judges at different occasions expressed their surprise about the unusual high legal expenses claimed by Sony's law firm.
Through their lawsuits, Sony forced the relatively small company behind Lik-Sang.com into a bizarre world of lawyers charging more than GBP 380 (EUR 550+) per hour (!), and if you believe it or not, these guys don't come alone, they need their (not necessarily much cheaper) assistants and clerks around them to get something done.
The UK courts ruling that outlaws what Lik-Sang and the gaming community enjoyed ever since, and the imminent direct threat from Sony about yet a third lawsuit and a PlayStation 3 injunction, will absolutely not make things easier and fairer for anyone involved.
Denying boldly any correlation between Sony's legal actions and Lik-Sang's closure must probably be cynical sarcasm on their behalf. Unfortunately for Lik-Sang, the current situation is neither a joke, nor a game: A bunch of people, including two highly pregnant women, have lost their basis for existence because of corporate lawsuits for something that is not only regarded as lawful in Hong Kong, it is considered to be beneficial for consumers (free trade). And a huge amount of gamers all around the globe lost a place on the Internet that they were enjoying.
Lik-Sang is not involved into any other lawsuits apart with Sony, and, while they "strongly denied that their actions have had anything to do with [Lik-Sang's] closing" in their statement, they still had the time to send a 15 pages fax less than 24h later, lining out the terms of the order made by the UK court last week and asking Lik-Sang to pay the sum of GBP 100,000 (EUR 150,000) just for their legal costs before 4pm at November 1. By the way, the fax also includes a penal notice, nicely reminding the reader that not obeying the order (which means shipping any PlayStation branded product to any country in Europe) may mean sequestration of all assets and, in worst case, imprisonment for the directors of the company. The judge also ordered that 'there be an inquiry as to the damages suffered' by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe in the UK and in any other member state of the European Union, based on each EU country's own rules.
Finally, Sony's unbelievable statement that all purchase orders made by their own directors 'would' be for investigatory purposes speaks volumes, and also doesn't explain why these and all the other orders placed by Sony officials were not revealed to the High Court (despite what is called duty for 'full and frank disclosure' in court proceedings, as Lik-Sang understands it as laymen).
Oddly enough, all investigatory orders that were revealed by Sony to the High Court in London and to the High Court in Hong Kong started much later than the purchases placed by their directors. Further to this, Sony Europe's own Legal and Business Affairs Manager signed a witness statement in the High Court of London that says that Sony Europe 'became aware' of parallel imported PSP consoles in the UK and in the rest of Europe only in March 2005, and the same witness statement presents a trainee solicitor from Sony's lawyers as the one placing such investigatory orders during May 2005.
On top of that, more than a half year after the named Sony officials started to receive their PSP purchase orders from Lik-Sang, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (managed by the very same directors) sent a letter to Hong Kong claiming that they just 'recently discovered' that Lik-Sang is offering PSP consoles and games to customers in the UK (United Kingdom) and that they would be entitled for a court injunction.
The three directors that were revealed in Tuesday's press release are very important and directly linked to Sony's lawsuits against Lik-Sang. A copy of their purchase orders, along with a fine selection of others, was produced by Lik-Sang's legal representatives to Sony Europe during the Hong Kong High Court discovery proceedings long before the trial in the UK took place. No purchase orders of non-management level Sony employees were revealed, not in court or otherwise.
UK news website Spong.com tried to call all three of the listed Sony directors, just to learn that 66% of them are not in their office or are on holidays this week. They are probably still very exhausted from placing all these investigatory orders for the trainees of their legal department...
My final words: Sony should be proud of having such a die-hard import gamers community rushing to buy their products and supporting them with a passion. Instead, they march all over us.
Pascal Clarysse, on behalf of Lik-Sang.com
