I love it, and the fact that Sony is so big they can offset the $1.7 billion with other divisions, such as the hug uptake of HD TV's and Tivo devices.
For any large organisation shit hits the fan, and for both of the cases quoted in the article there is a straight forward answer to why Sony sued them. Sony puts its customers first, therefore banning grey imports. If a European buys a grey import PSP from Japan, and they need support from Sony to fix a cracked screen or whatever, Sony Europe can't help them because their PSP will have a Japanese Serial Code, and Regional locking.
So hence anyone ordering a grey import is bypassing their rights, and basically shredding their warranty, and guarantee.
[/b]