It’s with a sad heart that I have to report that the folks at Xperiablog.net are shutting down their website, due to a recent suit filed against them by Sony Ericsson. For those who didn’t regularly visit their website, Xperiablog.net was much like our website, dedicated to giving Sony users the news and information they care about. Their site however, had a specific focus: on Sony Ericsson’s line of Xperia smartphones which run exclusively on Google’s Android OS. We have often used their commentary and breaking news as sources of our own and had always found them to be precise, fair and in good faith. Less can be said about larger tech websites which tend to use Sony as a punching bag. Instead, Xperiablog.net was designed to cater to the Sony community and give them a place to belong.
Sony Ericsson, however, did not see it this way and thought that they were instead somehow using the site to harm the Sony brand.
Sony Ericsson is alleging that we have used the domain names in “bad faith”. We are stunned and disappointed that Sony Ericsson, a company that we have spent much of our free personal time in promoting, especially the Xperia brand, has decided to take this formal action against us. After all we are just like you, passionate Sony Ericsson users, who have strived to bring the community breaking news and an independent viewpoint.
As often is the case, larger companies can pick on the smaller sites where it’s just a few dedicated fans who don’t have a real income or corporate backing from the site versus the larger tech sites who have plenty of lawyers at hand. It’s hard to see Sony having a real case, seeing how anything reported on a site like Xperiablog.net is public information and freedom of speech. If anything, the site empowers Sony Ericsson owners, while also giving Sony Ericsson a great place to dig in and research to see what their users want.
We’ve always personally had a good relationship with Sony, though this bit of news does concern us as our site is geared in the same way. Does that mean we could be next? However, I can promise you that we won’t go down without a fight if it comes to that. In the end, we wish the team at Xperiablog.net the best and hope that they move on to something even bigger and better. To readers who once saw Xperiablog.net as their home, we hope that we can serve you similarly.
[Via Xperiablog]