gzsfrk
04-25-2010, 12:28 AM
Well, despite the complete and utter disdain I hold for the US' overly-litigious civil court system, and my ceaseless advocacy for radical tort reform, I must admit that today I benefitted from a class action lawsuit in a pretty cool way.
About a year and a half ago (or something like that--my memory's a bit fuzzy), I saw an ad here on EvAv inviting anyone who had bought an ATI card between 2004 and 2006 (or thereabouts) to check out this website for possible class action participation. I had bought an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9800 in early 2005, so I figured I'd check it out. I came to discover that there was a lawsuit against ATI for falsely claiming that Radeon cards sold during that period supported HDCP, when in fact they did not. My card was among those affected, so I went ahead and filled out the information, forwarded a copy of my emailed receipt (bought it from an online retailer) and proceeded to forget about it.
Lo and behold, I get a package today with a brand new Radeon 4650 (512MB, PCIe), complete with HDMI output. Now granted, that's no beast of a card by any measure, but it's just perfect for the home theater PC I'm just starting to collect the parts to build.
So my question is--am I hyporcritical for benefitting from a system that I perceive to be flawed? Or am I still allowed to participate while simultaneously pointing out and objecting to what I perceive to be the egregious inequities therein--all the while still maintaining my principles?
I hope it's the latter, because I'd hate to have donate this sweet card to my in-laws computer, since they'd never use it for anything except surfing FaceBook over a dial-up connection. :)
About a year and a half ago (or something like that--my memory's a bit fuzzy), I saw an ad here on EvAv inviting anyone who had bought an ATI card between 2004 and 2006 (or thereabouts) to check out this website for possible class action participation. I had bought an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9800 in early 2005, so I figured I'd check it out. I came to discover that there was a lawsuit against ATI for falsely claiming that Radeon cards sold during that period supported HDCP, when in fact they did not. My card was among those affected, so I went ahead and filled out the information, forwarded a copy of my emailed receipt (bought it from an online retailer) and proceeded to forget about it.
Lo and behold, I get a package today with a brand new Radeon 4650 (512MB, PCIe), complete with HDMI output. Now granted, that's no beast of a card by any measure, but it's just perfect for the home theater PC I'm just starting to collect the parts to build.
So my question is--am I hyporcritical for benefitting from a system that I perceive to be flawed? Or am I still allowed to participate while simultaneously pointing out and objecting to what I perceive to be the egregious inequities therein--all the while still maintaining my principles?
I hope it's the latter, because I'd hate to have donate this sweet card to my in-laws computer, since they'd never use it for anything except surfing FaceBook over a dial-up connection. :)