SONY BOSSES are claiming that the PS3 will be much more of a computer than a games console.

It said similar about the PS2, but a British court has decided otherwise.

The Japanese giant has spent five years trying to persuade British beaks that the Playstation 2 is really a computer. It`s motivation was some 34 million quid is wanted to claim on import duties.

But the UK Court of Appeal decided Sony was trying to pull a fast one and denied its attempts at a re-classification. It further miffed the firm by denying it recourse to the European Court of Justice.

In the court finding published here, top judge, Lord Justice Chadwick chided the firm for its conduct in the case. He said Sony`s ``skeleton argument`` went ``beyond what can be regarded as acceptable written advocacy.``

``I am not protesting about its inordinate length, nor about its discursive quality, nor about its frequent and unnecessary resort to hyperbole, although all those unappealing features are present.

``My concern,`` he wrote, ``is with the repeated aspersions that are cast in that document on the intellectual honesty of the High Court Judge from whose decision this appeal is brought. ``

Sony wanted the PS2 to be classified as a ``digital processing unit`` to avoid EU import charges levied against it between 2001 and 2004. These no longer apply

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2006/772.html