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Surprisingly Few People Collect On GTA Hot Coffee
Relin writes "Out of the millions eligible, less than 3,000 have come forward to collect their money in the 'Hot Coffee' settlement. While the plaintiffs' lawyer is surprised by the development, Theodore Frank of the Legal Center for the Public Interest at the American Enterprise Institute seems convinced that the lawsuit was 'meritless' and will result in no payment for the legal counsel opposing Take-Two."
It's $5
Anonymous Coward
"Seth Lesser, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs said that he is "disappointed" by the outcome, and doesn't understand why so many people don't care."
It is, after all, just a video game.
I've got your sig, right here.
American Enterprise Institute seems convinced that the lawsuit was "meritless" and will result in no payment for the legal counsel opposing Take-Two.
Oh boy, I can only hope. Oh please.
The time it would take filling out the forms and cashing the $5 check is better spent on something else.
And frankly, anyone who buys Grand Theft Auto, the game that lets you kill hookers instead of paying them, is going to be hard to offend with some sex scene they have to use a hack to see in the first place.
That lawsuit never should have been brought to court, I hope the laywers don't see a penny!
Being that it requited a hack to unlock the feature (aka censors already deemed the code unacceptable) and the kids who downloaded the hack could have just as easily have gotten real porn. It really isn't that big of a deal. Besides who wants to say after buying GTA I am such a prude that I want money to accommodate my suffering. I think most people will say they hypocrisy needs to stop at some point.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
TFA states that the attorneys that brought the case are demanding 1.3 million in legal fees, way more than the 2,676 * (max $35) = $93,660 settlement fees that Take Two will have to pay.
Perhaps the remaining millions who did not claim the money actually, you know, liked the game?
I don't think it would make sense for gamers to exploit a frivolous lawsuit to get a few dollars out of a company that made a game they enjoyed.
I wonder what the networth of the attention take 2 got from this is worth. Surely far more than the cost of paying out the penalty and the fees of the lawers that they probably have on full time retainer anyhow.
I Need someone to rebuild a Digitech Digital Delay pedal for me....for me...for me...for me.
Suppose I bought some porn video and there was a code that my kids found that let them play a game where they beat people and ran them over for fun. Would I have case?
Who exactly is supposed to care about this?
-Dave
"I read instructions on the Internet on how to mod GTA so that I could see a sex scene, and when I followed those instructions, the game actually let me see a sex scene! Now I feel surprised, shocked and offended and want $5!"
Sometimes I really wonder if there are any normal people left in this world.
If the GTA makers owe me $35 for their hidden NPC sex scene, then the Second Life makers owe me seven figures for emotional trauma from the brief virtual walk I took though the general area.
and I still want my money!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
are the lawyers. The lawyers don't care if everyone get pennies, because they get their millions. And if there is a settlement or verdict, it should always be in monetary form distributed automatically to every class member. Members shouldn't have to fill any paperwork. The corporations should calculate it for them. Two examples:
1. Bank of America privacy lawsuit.
Fees waived for deposited items getting returned!
Fees returned for calling customer service!
12 months free subscription to a credit card protection service (a $30 value)!
90 free days of Privacy Assist Identity Theft Protection Service (a $17.85 value)!
Hell no. Basically, they get free marketing. OUCH.
2. Visa MasterCard Discovery Currency lawsuit.
They want you to calculate your foreign purchases yourself and document them for your reimbursement. Hell no. They should pay us $400/hr as they do their lawyers for the time we spend sorting through years worth of credit card statements. Some companies even charge a fee for requesting older records.
Settling should not be an option for class action lawsuits. The client/s should decide whether to settle, not the lawyer/s. A settlement should always be an opt-in, not an opt-out.
had Joe Pesci, these stupid lawyers against Take-Two and a big, fat baseball bat....
I'm a GTA San Andreas player who was not at all interested in money from Take Two because of the Hot Coffee content in the game. I'm not surprised that only a handful of people have taken them up on it, the game is limited to sale to a 17+ audience, an audience that already knows (except in the states whos names start and end with a vowel) that people have sex.
I *DO* however wonder how many of those 3,000 people were really offended by the Hot Coffee content, and how many were just going "Cool, free money!"
The Hot Coffee patch reminds me of ROT-13 encryption. It's trivial for someone to get at the content if they want to, but you have to deliberately go after it. You can't "accidentally" see it. You're saying "I know this might offend me, and I want to see it anyway".
We sadly live in a culture where it's more acceptable to beat up or kill a woman than it is to have sex with her. Which explains a lot of unfortunate things. It doesn't make them right though.
You want to know what is really offensive? And I don't think I'm alone here... I find it particularly offensive that someone would sue over this. And win.
I had so much hope for our species.
Sean
Actually a little reading/education will go a long ways in this discussion. The suit vs. McDonald's was legitimate though the jury-awarded amount was a bit extreme. Do some research and you'll see why she lost the lawsuit. (Hint: 700+ prior cases of injury, third degree burns requiring skin grafts and stuff, the judge lowered the punitive damages to less than $500,000 USD, and the elderly lady who was burned was burned a second time when the corporation didn't want to pay only her medical bills and they became the first and only people that she sued.) I realize that people love to point to that particular lawsuit and make fun of it but the reality is a lot different than most people are aware. Her suit was legitimate.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
I live in the GTA. Where do I get my free coffee?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Could we send in $5 to enable the hot coffee mod?
I've never seen so much consensus in Slashdot comments! And you're all right - the fact that gratuitous violence is more acceptable than sex is sick, sick, sick.
All pass beyond reach of medicine. None pass beyond the reach of love.
I bought a version that didn't have the sex scene. Can I collect $5 from the people that made them cut it out?
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Lawsuits are more about money, especially for the lawyers, rather than defending public rights.
Are you high? *sighs* I'll go on, I'd figured it'd be obvious. It isn't to you so I'll help you along. M'Kay? *grins* (Forgive my attitude - I'm slightly intoxicated at this point.) McDonald's had served coffee at a temperature that was much hotter than the average at that time. McDonald's had known of prior injuries. The corporation had willfully declined to warn customers. (I'd have said the suit was bogus with just a warning - just a warning, but they did not.)
This, in and of itself, is enough for me. The damages done were nothing less than willful negligence. (Yes, I even read your link.)
I'll leave you with this... Some searching, effort if you'd like, will show that I (of all the people on the planet) am not a leftist nor do I typically ascribe to anything the gibberish monkeys put out from either extremist views. That being said, they reason it was legitimate was because they knew that people were stupid enough to keep getting burned and didn't even warn them. I would argue that we don't need a nanny state where people are constantly protected from their own stupidity BUT when coffee burns result in third degree burns and the company knew this but opted to not warn their customers they have failed the checks and the suit was, I feel, legit. I don't know about your state but in mine you can't serve a drunk more alcohol and all sorts of things come with warnings on them. I am no fan of the nanny state that we have going on now BUT I feel this case had its merits and was certainly legit enough. I am not a lawyer.
No, thank you for your time. I love a decent conversation about great topics where we can agree to disagree. In this one I have the advantage of the court already having deemed it acceptable but I'd not just rely on that. Again, I'm not a lawyer. I just have some views of what justice is and I don't think justice should be "just us." In short, the suit was legitimate. Companies serve their coffee as hot today (or even hotter) because now they warn the idiots. Our society is about protecting those who can not protect themselves. (Or at least it *was* at one point. We can argue all day long about if it still is or not.)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
With class action lawsuits, all the risk is borne by the lawyers. If they don't win, they don't get paid. People whine that the consumer gets a $20 coupon while the lawyers make bank, but the consumer is getting something with no effort made or risk taken on his own. So if you don't like it, hire your own damn attorney and file your own damn lawsuit.
They say the devil's greatest trick was convincing the world he didn't exist. The devil has been one-upped; people in America have been brainwashed into thinking that standing up for themselves through unions or lawsuits is bad. They would rather money stay in the hands of those that wronged them rather than have it fall into the hands of (gasp) lawyers. They'd rather save $1000 a year in union dues rather than make another $10 an hour with 50% more vacation time. Americans excel at cutting off our noses to spite our faces.
I really want to see Mr. and Mrs. Pacman getting it on while Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde watch...
...
Simulated sex has to be realistic to be fun?
Ok, you're not into Hentai, I can tell...:)
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.