10/18/2007, 3:00pm, EDT
Thursday, October 18th
Apple sued over iPod storage capacity
Yet another class-action lawsuit targeting Apple has been filed against the Cupertino-based company, this time in Quebec's Superior Court. Lead Plaintiff and Montreal law student David Bitton is suing Apple because the company's 8GB iPod nano offers 7.45GB of actual storage capacity, rather than the full 8GB as advertised. Apple sells the 8GB portable player for $200, but lists its definition of 1GB as 1 billion bytes, as displayed on the company's iPod comparison Web page: "1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less." The lawsuit, however it may appear on the surface, could be taken seriously if Apple's legal history is considered, according to the Montreal Gazette.
The complaint alleges that all Apple products have, on average, 7.5 percent less storage space than advertised. The Plaintiff is asking for a full refund or, if a refund is refused, a 7.5 percent refund for him as well as all iPod owners in Quebec.
A complaint about Apple's marketing method surrounding the battery life of its third-generation full-size iPod player resulted in a class-action lawsuit ruling that gave every affected customer a $50 credit for any Apple purchase, excluding iTunes Music Store tracks.
Apple faces three other lawsuits filed during the month of October alone, all three of which relate to its iPhone cellular handset. One suit claims that the terms of iPhone usage required by both Apple as well as AT&T are illegal, while another complaint alleges that Apple took steps to disable iPhones that were hacked for use with cellular service providers other than its exclusive partner -- AT&T.
A third suit, which is environmentally based, charges that the iPhone contains harmful substances and that the device does not carry the appropriate warning labels to inform consumers of those dangers.
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If you get a 320 Gb hard drive on a new Dell, you don't actually get 320Gb of free space when it arrives. Windows takes up some of the space -- just like the iPod OS does.
You don't see anyone suing Dell...
This is precisely the sort of absurd action that gives lawyers a disgusted reputation. He's really going to waste the courts' valuable time with this sort of thing. It offers no value to consumers. Probably just a misguided project for a law school course.
From frivolous lawsuits to divorces to crooked corporate deals, lawyers are killing this country!
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I would be embarrased to be named as the plaintiff.
For years I've wondered why the entire industry was allowed to falsely inflate the size of their drives. Oh, wait, they were all guys, now I understand :-)