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posted by martyb on Friday November 16 2018, @08:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the Shriveled-fruits-of-the-legal-system dept.

I received my PS3 "OtherOS" class action lawsuit settlement payment yesterday: $10.07.

Have other members received settlements yet? More, less, or the same amount?

[We previously covered this in PlayStation 3 "OtherOS" Class Action Settlement Claims End on April 15 . Whatever happened to the $65 settlement that was mentioned there? --Ed.]


Original Submission

Related Stories

PlayStation 3 "OtherOS" Class Action Settlement Claims End on April 15 7 comments

PlayStation 3 Phat owners have a month left to claim 'OtherOS' class action settlement

The settlement was reached in October 2016, and originally PS3 owners were told to expect up to $55. That's increased to $65 now, possibly because fewer claims than expected were submitted in the 18 months since.

This resolves, legally anyway, the removal of the so-called "OtherOS" feature from the PS3's operating system eight years ago. That feature allowed users to partition their PS3's hard drive and install Linux on it. You may remember that, before then, the console was pitched and even used as a computer, including by the Air Force (which created a supercomputer cluster out of more than 1,700 of the consoles) and in distributed computing applications such as Folding@home and SETI@home.

But in April 2010, Sony stripped out the OtherOS feature, citing security concerns, which pissed off a small but very vocal contingent of PS3 users. That led to the lawsuit, which alleged false advertising, breach of warranty and etc. Sony admits no wrongdoing, which is customary in civil settlements.

"Phat" refers to the original console, which weighed approximately 5 kg and measured 325 mm (W) × 98 mm (H) × 274 mm (D).

Make a claim here.

Also at BetaNews.


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @09:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @09:38AM (#762618)

    You'll be celebrating tonight!

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Friday November 16 2018, @09:48AM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday November 16 2018, @09:48AM (#762624) Homepage
    I'm sure that Lawyers skimmed a meagre $55 off the top. Lawyers do that, because there's nothing you can do to stop them. One lawyer told the that they have to take a huge cut, citing security concerns. Just be glad that you ended up in credit at all...
    --
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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by effbee on Friday November 16 2018, @10:45AM (1 child)

    by effbee (902) on Friday November 16 2018, @10:45AM (#762642)

    Got my $10.07 too!

    • (Score: 1) by nwf on Saturday November 17 2018, @05:56AM

      by nwf (1469) on Saturday November 17 2018, @05:56AM (#762979)

      Got my $10.07 too!

      Same here. That has to be one of the slowest litigations I've ever seen, and for almost nothing. I paid $400 for the PS3, so this is 2.5% for the value of running another OS.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @12:46PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @12:46PM (#762669)

    I’ve never much cared for class actions, the only real winners are the lawyers. It’s like that every single time.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 16 2018, @01:12PM (3 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday November 16 2018, @01:12PM (#762678) Journal

      What's the problem? The lawyers get their fat payday, a company that you might not like gets punished, and you get a $10.07 check. Win-win.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday November 16 2018, @03:05PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday November 16 2018, @03:05PM (#762710)

        The lawyers get their fat payday, a company that you might not like gets punished, and you get a $10.07 check.

        And... the general public gets a reminder about just how "fair" our legal system is, and what you can expect anytime you engage a lawyer... Win, win win.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @11:21PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @11:21PM (#762895)

        They just bundle the cost of the fine into the next set of products, as a cost of doing business. YOU got punished.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by stretch611 on Friday November 16 2018, @04:47PM (3 children)

      by stretch611 (6199) on Friday November 16 2018, @04:47PM (#762733)

      While I never owned a PS3, it pretty much disqualified me from getting a check.

      However, I still remember the time I was in a class action against Iomega because of the unreliability of their zip drives. (for any possible youngin's those were expensive 100MB removable drives, a little larger than 3.5" floppies, that existed before CDs were writable.)

      The Iomega drives had a click of death [soylentnews.org] resulting in damage to the drive and any media put into it. A class action suit was filed. The lawyers were paid in cash. I received a coupon for $10 or $20 off a 6-pack of Iomega Zip Disks. I remember that the coupon was only valid at 2 or 3 stores... ones that charged full retail price of $150 for the 6-pack of disks, while I knew where to buy them for $99. Essentially the coupon was worthless.

      So the people in the class get nothing... The lawyers get paid, and the business gets off the hook for a lot less.

      As much as class actions are a scam, at least they sometimes hold a company slightly responsible. In this light, I would prefer having class actions to not having them and removing this occasionally useful but minimal amount of accountability.

      I also received a settlement for Sirius Radio recently for them marketing when they shouldn't. I always ignored registration so the only information they got about me was from the Car Dealer (which sadly was probably significant.) I got a whopping 3 months of free Sirius service.

      --
      Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 16 2018, @06:24PM

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday November 16 2018, @06:24PM (#762782) Journal

        While I never owned a PS3, it pretty much disqualified me from getting a check.

        Pretty much?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @06:35PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @06:35PM (#762796)

        I was in a class-action lawsuit years ago. My Honda Civic's sun visor had a problem where the little cam or whatever inside broke, and it would no longer stay flipped up against the roof of the car. I paid to replace it, installed it myself, and the replacement worked fine after that. After a year or two, the class-action was filed against Honda about it. Honda settled and agreed to reimburse anyone who'd paid to have it fixed. Luckily I'd purchased the replacement online, so I could go back to the supply site, get a copy of the receipt, and sent it in as proof. A few months later, I got the check for the full amount.

        So there are a few class-actions where the people actually "harmed" do get real compensation.

      • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday November 16 2018, @08:40PM

        by stretch611 (6199) on Friday November 16 2018, @08:40PM (#762837)

        Damn... screwed up the link in my parent post

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death#Origin_of_the_term [wikipedia.org]

        --
        Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @08:05PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @08:05PM (#762823)

      The alternative is that you get jack shit, or huge legal fees trying to take the international company to court on your own where you go broke because they drag the entire thing out for years or decades, and the company gets away with their bait and switch tactic.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @01:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @01:08PM (#762675)

    I also receiveda $10.07 check this week for the settlement.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday November 16 2018, @03:14PM (2 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday November 16 2018, @03:14PM (#762711) Journal

    This was before the settlement was approved, but certainly reveals the logic of the settlement....

    Sony and lawyers representing as many as 10 million console owners reached the deal on Friday. Under the terms of the accord, (PDF) which has not been approved by a California federal judge yet, gamers are eligible to receive $55 if they used Linux on the console. The proposed settlement, which will be vetted by a judge next month, also provides $9 to each console owner that bought a PS3 based on Sony's claims about "Other OS" functionality.

    The deal also provides up to $2.25 million in attorneys' fees for the lawyers who brought suit. Under the plan, gamers eligible for a cash payment are "all persons in the United States who purchased a Fat PS3 model in the United States between November 1, 2006, and April 1, 2010." The accord did not say how much it would cost Sony, but the entertainment company is expected to pay out millions.

    The troubles began with the PS3 software update 3.21. On March 28, 2010, Sony announced that the update would "disable the 'Install Other OS' feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models." This feature, Sony claimed, would be removed "due to security concerns."

    Sony did not detail those "concerns," but the litigation alleged piracy was behind the decision. "Sony's concerned that the Other OS feature might be used by hackers to copy and/or steal gaming and other content, the suit said." Making matters worse, Sony said the update was voluntary. However, without updating, console owners couldn't connect to the PlayStation Network, play any games online, play any games or Blu-ray movies that required the new firmware, play any files kept on a media server, or download any future updates.

    Before the settlement, Sony argued that its terms of service allowed it to remove the Other OS feature and that the functionality wasn't that big of a deal for most console owners.

    While the deal still needs a judge's signature, here's what the settlement says about how gamers can get their cash:

    To get the $55, a gamer "must attest under oath to their purchase of the product and installation of Linux, provide proof of their purchase or serial number and PlayStation Network Sign-in ID, and submit some proof of their use of the Other OS functionality." To get the $9, PS3 owners must submit a claim that, at the time they bought their console, they "knew about the Other OS, relied upon the Other OS functionality, and intended to use the Other OS functionality."

    Alternatively, according to the deal, to get $9, a gamer "may attest that he or she lost value and/or desired functionality or was otherwise injured as a consequence of Firmware Update 3.21 issued on April 1, 2010."

    Source [arstechnica.com].

    So the claimant above looks like they simply signed up for the suit and did not attest/prove that they had Linux running on their box in order to claim the larger settlement amount. Either that part of the settlement wasn't approved in the earlier story, or someone didn't get their facts straight. Whichever.

    Elsewhere I read that the settlement fund amount was $3.7 million, and in the settlement agreement [otherossettlement.com] it makes clear that this is inclusive of the lawyer's fees. So 3.7 million less 2.25 million is $950,000 available for settlement distribution. I can't readily find easy sales statistics to guess at how many users that would be, but at $65 that's 14,600 people. At $10 per person that is 95,000 people. My guess is that it would be around 30,000 or so.

    Incidentally many sources report that while Sony has had up years and down years, in 2017, the operating profit was $4.5 billion dollars [ft.com]. Elsewhere reports that just as operating income. Either way, I don't think Sony felt any true pain from paying this settlement out. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

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    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday November 16 2018, @05:28PM (1 child)

      by bob_super (1357) on Friday November 16 2018, @05:28PM (#762751)

      > I don't think Sony felt any true pain

      Out of all the ways I wish their death, I don't believe a megacorp should be taken down for removing in an update of one product, an obscure function that a lot less than 1% of the buyers are aware of, and an order of magnitude fewer will actually try to use.
      Coughing up a quite a few millions is not an unreasonable slap on the wrist.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday November 16 2018, @06:42PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday November 16 2018, @06:42PM (#762801)

        3.7 is not quite a few... I'd bet they also expended more than $3.7M fighting the suit, even if the total were $10M - we're talking 0.2% of annual profits, less than a day's take home...

        So, if they screw up and get penalized like this 100 times per year, that's 20% of profits... I think it's safe to say it's all about the PR, and virtually nothing about the $10 checks or the lawyers' fees.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
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