Evidently Sony does not have much faith in it's customers. Sony has effectively shut down Lik-Sang, an electronics company based out of Hong Kong that specializes in exporting games and hardware that is hard to find in Europe and the United States. They claimed they were protecting consumers from possibly inferior quality. Now I know that is absolute bullshit, because the only people who buy from sites like Lik-Sang know what they are doing and don't have to worry about incorrect voltage on their electronics and whatnot. My experience with the company was very enjoyable.

It is just another case of using government regulations to product/price discriminate (nothing inherently wrong with the idea of price discrimination as long as long as a company does not need to hide behind the government to do it). I don't know, but from the relatively small sales of companies such as this, the ill will towards Sony seems to outweigh the potential benefits of these types of actions. While the general attitude of buyers of Playstations will likely not care about a story like this, I still have to wonder if stories like this will eventually catch up to Sony. Their public image has certainly had some mud thrown on it recently. The sad thing is, this really will not stop the game enthusiasts who used the site to buy imports and limited edition games and hardware, but rather will be replaced by companies in China and other countries which will have less of a public avenue to do business with .

-Trevor