Seagate being sued - is this for real?

[piano632]

I received this notice in my email today. Is this for real?

http://www.harddrive-settlement.com/notice.htm

From what I can gather, there is a class-action lawsuit against Seagate for inaccurately stating hard drive capacities (i.e. 500GB when it's actually 465GB, etc.) The notice contains this line: "As part of the settlement, Seagate will make certain disclosures regarding the storage capacities of its retail hard drives."

I guess WD, Hitachi, and the rest better watch out.

[TBoneit]

Assuming it is real, Then Lawyers will be lining up to start a class action suit against every Hard Disk Drive Maker and computer maker that ever listed a hard drive capacity in their specifications.

Class action lawsuits are where the lawyers get rich and the consumer gets some sort of bogus award. Some may disgree with the above. However having been the unwitting recipient of two class action awards... Big deal a check for $2+ and the other one 5 free PPV coupons which I never used as I don't PPV. To much to watch and to little time as is.

Hopefully the courts will throw this one out. Or everyone that uses anything with a hard drive in it will end up paying.

Computers, DVRs some of the new hdd camcorders, etc.

[JohnnyMalaria]

It's stupid.

You can't even get 465GB into the 465GB anyway unless every single file is an exact multiple of the cluster size and there's no allocation table!

Plus, the odds are that you will have junk on there that you can't be bothered to delete etc.

Just more ambulance chasing.

Next thing, you'll be able to sue for not getting paid for a 365.25 day year...

I agree with Seagate - how has anyone been damaged by this? If you buy a drive and it has less space than you had been led to believe, take it back.

[mats.hogberg]

Not stupid - I think it's about time. I am sick and tired of storage manufacturers (led by their marketing departments no doubt) hiding behind the fact that "mega" can be 1000*1000, while everyone who's into computers knows it's 1024*1024 (in the computer world).
But if this holds, every MP3 player, memory stick, recordable media manufacturer will have to watch out!

/Mats

[oldandinthe way]

This is old news. Its just taken a while to get the notices out. Other makers have already settled and gotten notices out.

Drive makers have already changed their packaging to reflect these lawsuits. Needless to say if you buy a bulk pack oem drive your might not actually see the new weasel words. Yep MP3 players memory sticks etc etc have already changed their packaging.

This settlement is a shakedown by the lawyers. Drive owners get throwaway backup software if they choose to download it. The lawyers get a big payday. Seagate and its shareholders pay blackmail.

[TBoneit]

Oops, Just read closer where it looks like it has been settled. Hopefully it is an elaborate hoax, Not april 1 tho.

[Seeker47]

Class action lawsuits are where the lawyers get rich and the consumer gets some sort of bogus award

How right you are ! Less than bogus, usually zilch. There was a big DSL class action suit a couple years ago. Supposedly, those eligible for the class (I was) were due to receive 3 months of free service on the settlement. (DSL service was much more expensive then than it is now.) I went to the trouble of filling out all of their required paperwork, which took me awhile, and sent it in several weeks before the deadline. Never heard a goddamn thing about it after that, and the law firm that was spearheading this stonewalled my subsequent attempts to contact them. It's probably always BULLSHIT, just like this. Not worth any more of your time than it takes to hit the delete key, or toss their letter in the trash.

[BobTheNob]

DON'T CLICK!! The lawsuit is real but the email that's going around today is SPAM.

If you roll over the harddrive-settlement.com links in your email & check the real address, you will see that it's different. Probably phishing for your personal information, or hoping you'll verify your email by clicking their link.

If you're curious about the lawsuit, TYPE the address in your browser. DON'T CLICK THE LINK; if you do, you'll be signing up for a mountain of spam.

- Bob