Sony gets a class action

[twesterm]

damndl0ser said:

twesterm said:

damndl0ser said:

twesterm said:

damndl0ser said:
^^^

Where there is smoke there is fire.

All the tech would have to do is build a circumstantial case. And put that into the hands of a jury. The error code would probably be very damning.

As an example that consoles do have these error codes, look at the 360's E74 error. Once your in a diagnostic screen there could be dozens of other errors that go along with this E74 error and thats how you narrow things down. E74 + E21 means a certain thing as an example.

Unless that error code was specifically linked to firmware updates though then all they could say is it's also related to overheating and it could have been that.  If it were something with the firmware, there would have been more broken consoles.

Again, I realize there are error codes but I highly doubt there's an error code or group of error codes that are going to prove it was the firmware, especially with such a small number of broken consoles.  Like Sony said, I'm sure it just coincidence.

I don't think you understand my point, but thats ok.  They wouldn't have to have an exact error code to prove their case.  All they have to do is prove that its more than likely what happend.   This will probably never goto court, more than likely Sony will settle out of court.

 

Just like in real life Jury Trials, people get convicted on circumstantial evidence every day.  Thats all it would take.

And I'm telling you they can't prove it's more than likely without an exact error code because this was far from a widespread thing.  This was probably nothing more than a few hundred consoles which is just a coincidence when you're talking somewhere in the range of 20 million consoles.

Also, civil action lawsuits don't have juries.

Are you certain about the lawsuit jury thing?  My wife sat on a jury for one last month I think.  It was over an auto accident, the insurance company refused to pay and in the end lost.  The jury made them pay up, so  I don't see how this would be much different.  But I am not a lawyer so I don't know for sure.

I guess we will never agree on our points of view either way.  In my daily work I can tell what has happend to 99% of the problems I get.  With or without an error code.  And any real tech would be able to do the same, no matter what your specialty is.  IMHO of course.

 

I know juries are required for criminal cases, but I don't think they are required for civil cases since lawyers aren't required either (which also means they can't get their lawyer fees covered).

And again, I completely agree there will be some sort of error code, I'm just saying that error code won't definately point to a problem with the firmware.  It *could* be due to it, but do you really think Sony will just accept that and not fight back?

All they have to show is that probably less than 1% of people that downloaded the update had a problem which means it is *much* more likely it's a coincidence.  The people suing Sony can't just say it could be due to the firmware, they have to be able to prove it's absolutely due to the firmware because Sony can easily counter their argument if they can't.

Neither of us can really prove the other is wrong unless we actually know their codes.  All we can do is look at what we know:

• A *really* small number of PS3's had a problem

From that, common sense tells you it isn't a firmware problem, it's just a PS3 breaking due to something else.  If there is some error code that specifically links it to a firmware problem bricking the PS3 then yeah, they probably have something, but considering Sony is fighting them on it, I'm guessing there isn't. 

-edit-

And a note on the lawyer fees-- civil court is to make you whole and put you in the position before the bad thing happened.  In order to do that, Sony would have to repair the PS3.  The plaintiff's on their own hired lawyers and that is no fault of Sony's since lawyers are not required for civil cases so Sony would not have to pay for that.