Somebody finally did it!

[AO1_AW_SW_USN]

"Children. Can you say Class Action Lawsuit?"


http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/legal/5m-class-action-lawsuit-against-ubisoft-for-starforce-164303.php

At the end of the colum is a link to the .pdf file that outlines the details. Good luck to him!

[CWorth]

I for one wish him the best of luck..he's going to need all he can get.

Though I doubt he will stand a chance.

[SubSerpent]

Yeah, but even if he loses the case it will still have gotten UBISofts attention and perhaps in future releases they will choose a different copy protection program as to not dissappoint their fans.
We can only wait and see.

[DeepSix]

To those who would rather see him sue Starforce and not Ubi: Ubi is a U.S. company. I'm not a lawyer, but it probably simplifies matters quite a bit if the suit does not involve (a) international law or (b) Russia in particular. Sorry, that's not meant to disparage Russia, but an international suit involving Russia would be a mess.

[CCIP]

I don't believe anything today :P

[CWorth]

I can find nothing on this on any site except for a few game forums as well as that Kotaku.com site.This would be all over the news sites if it were true I would think.

Only other reference I could find is this..Looks official enough..but you never know.

http://eplaw.us/sf/UbisoftComplaint032406.pdf

[Tikigod]

It will get thrown out...games with starforce clearly state they will install starforce to your machine...so you have the choice of installing it or not....starforce products are never secretly installed it cleary states it on the ubisoft product....as for security every software package out there someway or another has a security exploit...it jsut takes time to find them....if you could file class action suit solely for this purpose....everyone using software would be collecting....

[Sir Big Jugs]

Ubisoft's lawyers will slaughter him!

[bookworm_020]

Unless their computer files are protected by starforce. Then they'll never be able access them! :-j

[U-4053]

Civil Torts are usually filed with the deep pocket theory in mind, they are searching for who has the most cash.
I liked the one comment in the link about are tire Mfg's responsible for your veh. if it explodes?
well the answer is Yes, Firestone put out thousands of substandard defective tires which resulted in countles traffic accidents.
And Yes, they were held Liable.
I investigated several accidents myself where flawed Firestone brand tires were an issue.

So Stareforce maynot be out of the loop yet, they can still add them later, a civil tort can be for anything.

[JSalinger]

And for those of us out there who are not in America or familiar with American law, yes, the papers in the PDF file ARE real (if they aren't, then someone is some seriously deep doodoo)...and actually, I think he may have something here...if he can prove that they (being Starforce and/or Ubisoft) intentionally didn't warn/explain what their software did or could do to consumers, then they are guilty of the civil tort of negligent misrepresentation...they also violated California Civil Code, I think...also follows under the heading of white-collar crime, if I'm not mistaken.

If you look at pg. 7 of the PDF file, under #35, what they're describing is also deceitful advertising. However, notice on #41, Spence says "Plaintiffs and other Class members have suffered irrepairable harm." If 'irrepairable harm' means that one has to shell out $1,000 for a new computer, then I'm an idiot.

Also, I can most definitely say that Ubisoft's lawyers will probably get Count II thrown out...Spence isn't defining who the Defendant is unfairly competing with. It sounds like Count III should be labeled 'Fraud'.

In my opinion, I think the end result will be that the judge will uphold Counts I & III, but throw out Count II. I wouldn't expect for him to get his full $5 million, either...it just might settle out of court.

[kiwi_2005]

I hear his wife is already packing her bags and making arrangements for weekend visits for his kids. :yep:

Good luck to him, but its more like David versus Goliath. I hope hes got some good stones to throw. :-j

[pythos1]

This lawsuit can do nothing but kill yet another company. This company will just get pissed off at the moaners and gripers about the copy protection that they will just make console games and forget about niche market like subsims.

The plaintiff should sue STARFORCE. Not Ubi.

[DeepSix]

To do that, they'd have to sue a Russian company. That would mean an international lawsuit involving a country with - um, how to put this diplomatically - a considerably "different" legal system from that in the U.S.

Too many unknowns involved in that, and the knowns are not particularly attractive, either. It would be a mess, and any lawsuit is by nature a mess anyway. Better to minimize what dangers you can and take advantage of any favorable opportunities that may present themselves (kind of like, uh, driving a sub :)).

Somebody posted above about going after deep pockets - I think that's true; if Starforce finds that it has no buyers (i.e., other software companies), that will force the issue as far as that company is concerned. Frankly, I don't care whether the suit is against Ubi or Starforce, as long as it culminates in getting rid of garbage like the latter. But bringing suit requires using some tactical sense, just like any other contest.

Just my opinion, and this isn't meant as a flame, but I don't think you have to worry about Ubi or any other major publisher for that matter. Even if a giant like Ubi did abandon PC games for console games, any time there's a vacuum, somebody will inevitably step up to fill it - this favors smaller companies looking for a break, and I'm all for that. I'd rather buy software (not just games) under those circumstances than be just another battery sustaining the market.

Cheers. :)

[Seeadler]

Ubi is a U.S. company.
No, it's a French company ;)