Update: Western Digital hard drives

Reader Mickey Ferguson writes: “I just wanted to follow up on the original message I sent which you posted Apr. 14. On Jun. 20 I was notified that as a result of the settlement of this class action I am now the proud owner of the right to download free (and nearly worthless) hard disk […]

Reader Mickey Ferguson writes: “I just wanted to follow up on the original message I sent which you posted Apr. 14. On Jun. 20 I was notified that as a result of the settlement of this class action I am now the proud owner of the right to download free (and nearly worthless) hard disk drive backup and recovery software. Woo-hoo! Meanwhile, the lawyers win again. Details here.” More on the case: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, “Attention hard drive manufacturers! Most people believe that a kilobyte is 1,024 bytes!”, ZDNet, Jun. 29.

One Comment

  • Wonderful find.

    So at the end of the day,

    (1) Plaintiffs get to download backup software. In addition, the one named plaintiff gets $1,000 (Section 11.1 of the settlement agreement http://www.westerndigital.com/settlement/docs/settlementagreement.htm .)

    (2) Plaintiff’s lawyers get $485,000 (Section 11.2 of the settlement agreement.)

    (3) Defendant’s lawyers probably got, I estimate, around a $1,000,000.

    Based on a quick read of the settlement agreement, Western Digital didn’t even agree to change the way they advertise their hard drive capacities!

    This lawsuit, like many, literally accomplished nothing but put money into the pockets of lawyers. Of course these fees will be passed onto consumers.