Recently, sony put a gaming company out of business for perfectly legally selling PSP's purchased in Hong Kong to people in europe (the PSP didn't come out until 9 months after it did in HK here).
Not exactly. They sued them for "infringing intellectual property rights" which the company, Lik-Sang, didnt contest. The company then went on to reveal that various Sony people had used them for purchases (which makes it seem like the company was some how ok'ed) Sony claim they were purchased for "investigational purposes" which sounds a little odd, but then wouldnt you purchase some if you were Sony to see what it was they were actually selling. Lik-Sang then go onto name the people that purchased them, which must have been againt many data protection rules - which doesn't suggest good management/business ethics to me. I am not saying Sony are blameless but there is definatly two sides to this story!
Last year, sony included what was essentially a virus that took over your computer and damaged the operating system so much it couldn't be removed, and claimed it was in the name of copyright protection.
From what I have seen, this anti-piracy software (which does auto instal) didn't cause any damage, but because of its cloaking has been targeted by hackers, and at least 3 trojans have used its security weakness. So again two sides - though having bloody Spyware from a music CD is damn stupid! (remember this is Sony BMG, so it is not the electrical side)
Over the last six months or so, bad manufacturing has caused millions of Sony batteries to be recalled (and I mean millions - google it). If you don't send your battery in for the recall, it has a rather alarming habit of blowing up.
Sony did claim on one report I saw that it was the connectivity to laptops etc that companies were using that was causing these problems, that does sound like a poor excuse though! There are sooo many stories out there I can't find any facts but I don't think its actually that many (if any) that have actually blown up...I think the problem is mainly with overheating and fires during charging. This all sounds really bad. But Sony are not trying to shy away from this, they have issued the recalls and it is going to cost them millions....I would be more worried if they had just played it down and said it was the laptop manufacturers faults.
They screwed over PSP customers by advertising the ability to play media on UMD disks as a major plus, and then abandoning the format.
Again there is a second side to this! The media (mainly movies) that were available in UMD format were priced the same as DVD's (IE full res versions of the same thing) Sony didnt set these prices or, directly, make these movies. It is the movie industry and studios that have helped kill off this format. Granted Sony could try and incorporate other uses for the format, but saying the the abandoned the format is a bit harsh! they still use it for games etc!
They screw over customers time and time again, and people still buy sony.
I will still buy them! You have to remember that Sony is HUGE and therefore it is going to have a few problems, and because of who they are they are going to get publicity! I still think they are the best electronics manufacturer out there....so much so that I spent forever replying to this
)
And, they charge ridiculous prices for stuff that is no better than anything else on the market, and do it all by using their history of a good name...
Yup they are pricey, and I do think some of that cost is just for the name, but I for one am willing to pay that in the long run.
Now I need to rest my wrists!!!
EDIT: Now thats a 100th post!
(P.S I quite like debating, sorry!)
