Editorial--Apple G3-Mac OS X Class Action Lawsuit has a Proposed Settlement

according to this CNet article. The proposed class action settlement allows one, if in the class, to get either their money back for Mac OS X by sending Apple their CD or a $25 discount coupon to buy something costing over $99 from the Apple Store. The suit itself is not frivolous since Apple promised much more than it delivered in support for the graphics cards in early iMacs, ibooks, Power Mac G3's and PowerBook G3's. However, the suit's claim is absurd, i.e. Mac OS X's performance on early G3s was degraded "so severely that OS X is rendered an unrealistic option." What crap. We have a beige G3 266 tower and Mac OS X through v10.2.6 runs fine on it, surprisingly well in fact, for the general use that can be expected from an aged stock graphics card.

Like almost all such class action suits, the only real winners are the attorneys. They frequently reap millions of dollars in fees while the "clients" get virtually useless coupons. In this case, while not as ridiculous as most, one of the disaffected customers is actually the attorney who brought the class action suit. CNet pegs the attorney's fee at "up to $350,000" not just the $25 discount coupon or his money back for his OS X CD as he settled for the rest of us. Sure, he did some work and we didn't. He also had some expenses and we didn't so he deserves reasonable compensation for the actual outcome of his work. But if his claim in the suit is accurate, which it is not in our experience, he failed miserable to get appropriate compensation in the proposed settlement and should be paid accordingly for his time. We think $350,000 for part time work over 2 years with this outcome is grossly excessive.

We only wish there was an effective way to protest these attorney-enriching-only class action lawsuits.