The judge has ruled that the case cannot procede as a class-action suit. That pretty well guts it as the value of the licences/computers is a lot less than the litigation for a few individuals.
The judge’s reasoning was that the plaintiffs had not proven their price inflation theory. That would be difficult as there are many factors:
- M$’s Vista Incapable campaign
- the tendency for the price of hardware to decrease with time and Moore’s Law, etc.
- shifts in the economy
Of course, the judge put the onus on the plaintiff to prove that a megacorp spending big bucks on an advertising campaign could/did affect the market. I would think it would be unquestionable that M$ can sell and that they did sell whatever they wanted. Otherwise it makes little sense to have a law that does not apply to M$. If an individual cannot reasonably sue for redress for a few hundred dollars, how will the law ever be applied?
I think the judge is wrong because she put an impossible barrier to the plaintiff.
Besides justice, class-action should be about judicial efficiency, putting a bunch of cases together. Will a million or so individuals have to sue to get the judge’s attention?
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