When a game modder found a piece of locked away code within the 2004 blockbuster Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and produced patches to unlock it, who would have thought it would cost Take-Two and its insurers $20 million. Since the patch was released, Rockstar became the target of politicians such as Hillary Clinton, and the game was given an AO (Adult Only) rating instead of it’s previous M rating due to the “strong sexual content” it then included.
Store shelves were re-stocked with copies of the game that did not include the unlockable code, which then carried the M rating. Now, five years after the this happened, Take-Two and its insurers have agreed to pay $20 million ($4,915,000 from Take-Two and $15,200,000 from its insurers) to settle a class action lawsuit that stemmed from the controversy.
“We are pleased to have reached this settlement, which represents another important step forward for the company,” said Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two, in a brief statement.
Result for: class action lawsuit
In 2002, the retail giant Wal-Mart decided to launch an online DVD rental business, in an effort to rival Netflix. However, Netflix did what it has to all its other competition and practically drove the startup out of business.
By 2005 Wal-Mart decided it was a waste of money and let Netflix take over its DVD rental operation while Netflix would promote Wal-Mart’s in-store DVD movie sales.
This decision led to a class action lawsuit early last month as the companies were accused of “conspiring to create a monopoly for online video rentals.” The “collusion” between the companies led to higher prices for Netflix customers, alleged the suit.
This week, the companies find themselves facing a new class-action lawsuit of the same type, this time from a plaintiff in Chicago.
As proof that the deal in 2005 promoted “unfair trade”, the plaintiff notes that Netflix raised its average subscription price from $14.99 to $17.99 USD almost immediately after the agreement with Wal-Mart. At the time, Wal-Mart’s comparable monthly plan was $12.97 USD.
“The subscription fees charged by Netflix to Plaintiff, as well as the other members of the Class, were maintained at artificially high levels,” states the suit. “Plaintiff and the other members of the Class paid higher subscription prices to Netflix than they otherwise would have paid.”
Result for: class action lawsuit
According to court papers filed late last week, the electronics manufacturing giant Samsung has had a class action lawsuit filed against it by early adopters of the BDP-1200 Blu-ray player which has had compatibility issues with a few Blu-ray discs.
The man behind the suit, a Connecticut man by the name of Bob McGovern, said he filed the suit “on behalf of thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands” of BDP-1200 buyers who only later found out that the player was “incompatible with numerous Blu-ray disc titles.”
Although the suit does not mention which titles the player is incompatible with or what makes them incompatible, McGovern alleges that “Samsung was fully aware” of the problem at the time of manufacturing yet it has still not updated or repaired the player.
The Fantastic Four sequel, one of the problem discs was previously reported but Samsung said that the problems were fixed by a firmware update. This is clearly not the case for McGovern and many other early adopters.
