We don’t normally discuss class action lawsuits here on the Gear, mostly because we’re not fond of fostering the idea that lawyers can do good. In this case, however, you’re very possibly due for a bate for 5% from Seagate, if you’ve purchased one of its harddrives in the last six years. That’s enough money to get you most of the way to the Transformers DVD.
At the center of the suit is what constitutes a gigabyte. In my G5 that I’m typing this on, I have a 150GB HDD. That’s really a misnomer, however, as it really has 160,041,885,696 bytes. The reason for this disparity is that a gigabyte is really 1,024 megabytes, which are each 1,024 kilobytes, and so on. Those extra 24s add up, but to keep it simple, harddrive manufacturers round down or, as is the issue here, round up to the nearest value.
Honestly, we think that Seagate has done no wrong. There was no deception involved, and anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of computers probably wouldn’t take issue. But if you feel that you’ve been wronged by the way the math works, by all means sign up for your $12.50.
Seagate pays out over gigabyte definition [ZDnet UK]