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Reading the Sunday paper, my completist nature usually compels me to also read through the “USA Weekend” section, which is basically a compilation of puerile nonsense, celebrity gossip, halfwit health advice, and a recipe or two.

In today’s USA Weekend, in addition to reading about “The ex-astronaut who wants to put YOU in space,” I happened to spot a legal notice on page 22 headlined thus: “If You Purchased Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Before July 20, 2005 You May Be Eligible for Benefits From A Class Action Settlement.”

I had read about this ridiculous class action lawsuit. The basis of the suit is a claim of deceptive advertising: Rockstar Games sold the game rated “M” (Mature) but then changed it to “AO” (Adults Only), because of the so-called “Hot Coffee” mod.

Two problems:

1. The grandmother bringing the suit had purchased the game for her 14-year-old grandson, and a rated “M” game shouldn’t be purchased for 14-year-olds anyway.
2. The reason Rockstar had to rerate the game was because of the assets of simulated sex enabled by the Hot Coffee mod, but anyone who purchased the game would have to download a mod or hacked saved game to enable that hidden scene.

With an unaltered copy of the game, the sex scenes are impossible to access. The original M rating was appropriate (or at least, shouldn’t have to change because of content NOT actually part of the gameplay).Anyway, back to the legal ad. The terms of the settlement are “cash payments ranging from $5 to $35, and/or to exchange the game for a copy without the content at issue.”

But then I saw this startling section: “Class Counsel will ask the Court for an award of attorneys’ fees and reimbursement of expenses in the amount of $1,000,000. This amount includes approximately $955,000 in attorney’s fees, and approximately $45,00 for reimbursement of expenses.”

So that’s 96% for the lawyers, 4% for the “aggrieved” consumers.

It’s very clear who the winners are, but in this case I think the losers include both the defendants AND the plaintiffs.

This entry was posted by Stephen on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 7:05 pm and is filed under business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.