Court Unravels Grand Theft Auto Sex Scene Settlement

from the go-get-some-hot-coffee-and-try-again dept

We still can't understand how someone who bought a game where the focus of game play includes stealing cars, killing people, prostitution and drugs could possibly be offended to later find out that if you applied a special mod to the software you could also experience some consensual adult sex. Yet, some folks (mainly lawyers and politicians) got all uptight about the so-called "Hot Coffee" mod, and a class action lawsuit quickly followed -- supposedly to help reimburse those poor souls traumatized by the discovery (actively, after applying the mod) that the carjacking game they were playing had consensual sex. And, of course, the lawyers won. They reached a settlement where the lawyers made over a million dollars, and those of you traumatized by the hot coffee mod got $5.

It turns out, though, that not too many people were actually traumatized by this. Very few people have actually bothered to file the forms to join the class... and it all might not matter any way. A federal judge has just realized (it took this long?) that the "class" in the class action suit doesn't actually qualify as a "class." You see, the whole thing was filed under the idea that the Hot Coffee mod violated consumer protection laws... which just so happen to be handled at the state level. So the idea of lumping everyone from across the country into the same class is problematic -- since different state laws cover the issue at hand.

Filed Under: class action, grand theft auto, hot coffee

Consensual Sex Mod In GTA Not Disturbing Enough To Get Many To File For Settlement Payment

from the really-not-so-bad dept

For years, we've been mystified by the "scandal" surrounding the "Hot Coffee" mod in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Here was a game that very overtly included all sorts of violence, killing, carjacking, drugs, robbery, prostitution and general mayhem. And, then someone slips in a modification that adds in some consensual sex? How dare they! Yet, it became a big issue for politicians and lawyers, who eventually worked out a settlement that gives those offended $5. The lawyers, in the meantime, stand to take home $1.3 million. And, now, it turns out that not very many people cared enough to join the settlement. There are probably two reasons for this: (1) most people really weren't particularly offended and (2) $5? ($35 if you actually kept the receipt) Not worth the time. So, once again, we have a situation where a class action lawsuit basically just moves a bunch of money to some lawyers, rather than doing anything useful.

Filed Under: class action, consensual sex, grand theft auto, hot coffee, mods, video games
Companies: take two interactive

Who Do You Side With? Telco Lawyers And Binding Arbitrators Or Class Action Lawyers?

from the pick-a-side-and-hold-your-nose dept

There are times when you hear of lawsuits and you really don't know who to favor. In the latest such case, the Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from T-Mobile on an appeals court decision that said that T-Mobile's contract terms requiring "binding arbitration" are unenforceable if those contracts also ban class action lawsuits against the company. This doesn't mean the Supreme Court totally agrees with it, but it didn't find it worth getting involved at this point (often the Supreme Court will wait for different circuits to disagree on a point of law before weighing in -- but in the meantime, it appears that the Supreme Court is not upset by the lower court ruling).

As you probably know, many of the contracts you sign these days require binding arbitration, rather than the ability to go to court over a dispute. Companies like to claim this is because binding arbitration is faster and simpler, but it's really because arbitrators (who are hired by the company) side with the company over 95% of the time. At the same time, the companies also try to block you from being a part of any class action lawsuit, and it's this combination that the court found problematic.

The real issue here is pretty straightforward: companies are trying to get you to give up most of your rights contractually -- but not through any sort of negotiation. They're basically trying to ram through agreements in the fine print that you'll never read that take away any sort of remedy you might have against the company in case the company does something wrong. While a fair contract is one thing, these contracts are not fair; they are not negotiable, and they're often not at all clear. It seems that companies are taking them too far, often depriving customers of perfectly reasonable rights -- so it seems like a good thing that the courts are pushing back a little.

Filed Under: binding arbitration, class action, supreme court
Companies: t-mobile

Will Lifelock's CEO Get To Be A Part Of The Class Action Lawsuit Against Lifelock?

from the he-could-qualify dept

You may recall the story of Lifelock, the company that heavily advertises its service which charges you $10/month to get services that you can get on your own for free from credit agencies. This is the one where the CEO gives out his Social Security number in every advertisement to show how confident he is in the service. Of course, what he leaves out is that Lifelock failed to stop identity fraud carried out against him (oops). Oh yeah, also the stuff about how the company's founder was being investigated for fraud (and potential identity fraud) at a previous company.

So, it should come as little surprise that some customers of Lifelock aren't particularly pleased with the company and have filed a class action lawsuit against the company, claiming deceptive advertising, and noting that it doesn't really provide much security. One additional nugget of information: the identity fraud against the CEO that we mentioned earlier is just the tip of the iceberg. The CEO's social security number is apparently now widely in use among identity scammers. Well, maybe he'll get some money out of the class action lawsuit, since it appears that he was misled by his own advertising...

Filed Under: class action, identity fraud
Companies: lifelock

Network Solutions And ICANN Both Sued For Allowing Domain Front Running

from the as-expected dept

Back in January, it was revealed that Network Solutions was involved in the rather sleazy practice of registering up any domain you searched for through its search engine, and holding onto it for five days -- unless you bought it through them only. Since Network Solutions charges more than most other registrars, but is generally considered more "trustworthy" as a place to search for domain names, this was a pretty big deal. Lots of people search at NetSol and then register elsewhere -- so by holding on to the domains and forcing you to pay NetSol's inflated prices seemed like a scam. In fact, it seemed quite similar to the sleazy practices of questionable registrars, Network Solutions actually tried to claim it was actually to protect against those questionable registrars. ICANN, reprising its usual role as being powerless to do anything useful, promised to look into the matter, and promptly claimed that Network Solutions was doing nothing wrong. Many people feel otherwise, so it's hardly a surprise to find out that both Network Solutions and ICANN have been sued by lawyers attempting to create a class action suit over the activity. Whether or not it deserves a class action lawsuit is a separate discussion, but it's still difficult to understand how NetSol could possibly think this is a good idea or one that would be welcomed by anyone.

Filed Under: class action, domain names, front running
Companies: icann, network solutions

T-Mobile Sued For Forcing People To Accept (And Pay For) Text Messages

from the pls-dnt-mk-me-gt-txt-msgs dept

It's not too hard to remember the day when a lot of people couldn't receive text messages on their mobile phones. I still sometimes ask people to see if they use text messages. Apparently, if they're on T-Mobile, I shouldn't even bother. Even if you don't want to use text messaging, T-Mobile requires users to accept messages... and to pay for them. That's resulted in a class action lawsuit against the company for unfairly forcing people to pay for text messages they don't want. While it may not be a huge issue right now, if SMS spam picks up, it could become a very important issue.

Filed Under: class action, text messages
Companies: t-mobile

Lawyers Work Hard To Protect Us From Grand Theft Auto's Hot Coffee Mod. Your Cut? $5.

from the grand-theft-lawyer dept

Over two years ago, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas got into a bit of hot water over the "Hot Coffee" mod that allowed players to unlock a hidden mini-game that would then show characters engaging in (gasp!) consensual sex. Considering that the rest of the game was completely awash in acts of violence, which garnered it the appropriate "M" rating, all of the hubbub that arose over the mod seemed overblown, ultimately culminating in a class-action lawsuit against the game's publisher, Take-Two. Consumerist points to the recently released details of the settlement. What do you get? $5, if you don't have the receipt for the game -- for those that are more diligent about filing away their 2 year old video game receipts, $35. The lawyers' take? A cool million. In any case, here's some free advice for the much-anticipated next release in the Grand Theft Auto series, avoid lawsuits and don't hide the sex in the game this time.

Filed Under: class action, grand theft auto, hot coffee
Companies: take-two

That Didn't Take Long At All: Sears Sued For Data Breach

from the $5-million,-please dept

Well that didn't take very long at all. Late last week, it was revealed that Sears.com was revealing past purchases to anyone who knew your name, address and phone number -- a violation of Sears' own privacy policy. And, by Monday, we have a $5 million class action lawsuit against Sears. While I do think Sears made a huge mistake here, the class action lawsuit seems a bit extreme. There's no evidence that anyone was actually hurt by this -- and while it was a dumb move by Sears, it's not difficult to understand how it likely came about. Chances are Sears will settle this quickly just to get it out of the news, but really the only winners will be (as per usual) the lawyers.

Filed Under: class action, data breach, privacy
Companies: sears

Facebook Settles Text Messaging Suit Even If It Probably Didn't Need To

from the less-of-a-hassle dept

Back in October we pointed to a totally pointless lawsuit against Facebook from a woman who blamed the company because her mobile phone was getting text messages from Facebook against her wishes. The problem with the lawsuit, however, was that it wasn't Facebook's fault, as the reason the woman was getting the errant text messages was because she had received a new phone number. The previous owner of the number had signed up to receive the text messages, and they carried over to the new subscriber. There's no doubt that this could be quite annoying and upsetting to the woman, but it's hard to see how Facebook really should have known about it or could be seen as the party liable here -- so it appeared to be yet another lawsuit where someone targets a hot company just because it's a hot company. In this case, though, it appears to have worked. Facebook has agreed to settle the lawsuit and pay the legal fees of the plaintiff, while also agreeing to make it easier to stop such text messages and working with mobile operators to learn about recycled numbers. While Facebook probably had a decent chance of winning the case, from a PR/user relations standpoint it probably made sense to settle and do everything possible to make this less of a problem.

Filed Under: class action, recycled numbers, text messaging
Companies: facebook

And Now It's Time For The Bogus Class Action Lawsuits Against Facebook

from the pick-your-popular-company-and-sue dept

At this point, it's just an unfortunate fact of life that as a company becomes more well known it will soon be targeted by totally random lawsuits. We've already seen all sorts of random people suing to take credit for the idea of Facebook (all of whom ignored that Facebook's success had nothing to do with the idea and everything to do with the execution). Now it's time for random users and their lawyers to come up with all sorts of odd lawsuit ideas. For example, we've now got a woman and her lawyer trying to create a class action lawsuit against Facebook because the woman got a new mobile phone number, and that number is receiving too many unwanted text messages that were sent through Facebook and intended for the previous owner of the number. Why is this Facebook's fault? That's not clear, but it's a hot company worth billions, so might as well sue and hope to get some cash out of it. This is a problem that plenty of people face if they get a new phone number that's been "recycled" but it's hardly the fault of the companies who are simply forwarding the messages as directed.

Filed Under: class action, recycled numbers, text messaging
Companies: facebook