News Seagate lawsuit concludes, settlement announced

Ok... let me get this straight.

Seagate got sued because their customers lack education? that sounds...reasonable....

Shouldn't wheel/tire manufacturers be sued because they sell 19" wheels? With the rubber on them they aren't 19" now are they? (ok, so the customer gets more diameter for their money, but still.)

OH! Someone should sue makers of toilet paper as well. The cardboard core creates a void where it should be paper!

I hate this suing culture! I'm pretty sure that the general population gets more stupid for each day that pass. (Or is this just a result of the fact that every 12 year old kid are a "computer expert"? )

 

I totally suing the crap out of Charmin now.

 

who wants to bet that shortly microsoft either

A: bring out a new section in their windows eula that reliefs them of any responsibility

or

B: bring out a new format for hdds that doesn't take so much space (as unlikely as that is you have to give them some options)

 

you know what I could probably join in and get something from them but Im a loyal Seagate fan and I knew about the calc system so Im not going to be some greedy bastie when I knew already that I wasnt getting the listed amount on the box so ehh,

but does this mean that WD and other companies are up next on the lawsuit band to get sued for the same reasons and if so does that mean we will finally see the Actual listed amount of space on HDD boxes, I kinda hope so.

 

heh ....well i found it funny...

 

Let's sue CD manufacturers, they're only 33% efficient!

 

CRT TVs?

For magnetic media the size (mis)quoted is 'unformatted', so MS, Apple, etc, are clear. Actually MS did have a formatting system to squeeze a few more k onto a floppy, used on their software, and you can over-burn optical discs.

You could also fiddle a bigger size out of the old MFM hard drives by low-level formatting all the coating instead of just the recommended area. Gave maybe 50-55Mb out of a 40Mb drive (but not safe for valuable data).

 

Im suing Mr Kippling. His tasy fruit cake does not serve 6 people. I can only get one protion out of it.

 

That's because you're a beefcake

 

Fortunately for Seagate I think most people are just too lazy to dig out invoices or work out where to find the serial number, fill out a form, mail it in and then go to the bank with a check (not cheque because it does only apply in America), just for a few measley dollars. There'll be a few no doubt but the effort involved will weed out 95% of their customers.

 

I wonder how much it cost in terms of legal fee's it cost to get this total waste of time sorted out.

 

I wider how long we'll have to wait to see the law suits about fair practice cause what? now seagate will sell 465GB drives and WD will sell 500GB one on the same $ price point... my my that'll look interesting on a shelf..

 

It's not the stupidity of these law suit that upsets me . . . rather they could have put their time to solving a real problem that actually impacts people's lifes . . . . luv to know what the motive was for the people that started this case rolling . . . was it greed, was it because they felt thet had been wronged by the companies misrepresentation, or do they actually beleive they were doing something good for consumers as a whole . . .

 

whilst reading that my mind slowly seized up and just said "wtf"

 

that is exactly what I was thinking, woot $5

 

For the most part I agree with this lawsuit. It seems like the vast argument here is that 'it has been like this forever so lets keep it that way' when in all reality we all know it is misleading. Certainly the mathematical defintion is regarded in base 10 but hard drives aren't created for the mathematical world. HDD's are created for the computer science world.

Keeping this in mind it should be clear to see that changing the way they market their drives is really what should happen (and as said above should have happened from the start) From seagate's perspective they could care less if they have to give 5% back for drives purchased. For the most part consumers will continue to buy seagate because they know they make quality drives. In fact forcing seagate to use base 2 will most likely boost sales from anyone like me who loathes the fact that they (along with all other drive manufacturers) used to use base 10 representation.

When you look at the bottom line:
1) It should have been this way from the start.
2) 'Greedy Americans' are going to get about enough money back to buy a McDonalds combo to eat themselves into an early grave (Note that I am an American and am purely joking)
3) The amount paid back (including legal fees) by Seagate will surely not even bother them financially as it's pretty much pocket change for them
4) Die hard seagate fans like me will now be advocating that they are doing 'the right thing' and will most likely boost their overall sales.

 

If you read the fine print in the court documents, you will see that the only people who actually benefit from this lawsuit are the attorneys themselves. The court specifies that they are to be paid no less than $1.792 million (that'd be about a couple hundred "quid" on the other side of the pond these days what with the exchange rates and all these days, I guess .
And, for the most part, I'm pretty certain the majority of the claimants will opt for the free software. That seems to be the least hassle for all parties involved. Click on a link they send you and download the software instead of dealing with all that red tape.

Oh, I'm only assuming they will provide a link for the software download.. They wouldn't be stupid enough to actually snail mail the software to every single claimant out there now, would they?