Man named Frank Dickman sues Microsoft for $6bn for deliberately upgrading his PC from Windows 7 to Windows 10

[AshleyAshes]

2 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I don’t know. I think most product keys of Windows 7 is single use only and might require activation through phone, I’m not sure but Dickman might be using an OEM installation. maybe @GoodBytes can answer.

Yeah but can't you juts reactivate them by phone?  I've had to do this before, but all of my keys I got 'free' from College (As in the cost was somewhere in my tuition, NOT piracy) so they are all bog standard Win7 and Win 8 keys that you can use to install on any hardware, but sometimes during hardware upgrades I had to call in for reactivation but it's a pretty straight forward process.
 

[Murasaki]

5 hours ago, Valentyn said:

I remember some people have actually won cases against MS about all this.

Some were small business owners though; but none of it was millions.

https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-pays-woman-10000-over-forced-windows-10-install/

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-06-27-woman-wins-usd10k-suing-microsoft-for-unauthorised-windows-10-upgrade

Yeah I remember that, but 10000 is one thing and 6 billion is a ehh.. what did that thing contain, research on dark energy or something..

[Methos]

It may be a stretch, but I hope he wins. Microsoft is cancer.

[Valentyn]

10 minutes ago, ModuleLFS said:

Yeah I remember that, but 10000 is one thing and 6 billion is a ehh.. what did that thing contain, research on dark energy or something..

Probably a working cold fusion drive design hahah.

I have no issue with them claiming damages if there were some; but realistic amounts are needed. Otherwise they fail and help set a precedent against legitimate people.

[GoodBytes]

38 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I don’t know. I think most product keys of Windows 7 is single use only and might require activation through phone, I’m not sure but Dickman might be using an OEM installation. maybe @GoodBytes can answer.

OEM license of Windows 7 from manufacture uses a global key on the disk image which checks the brand name of the system, and the key stored somewhere.

So basically any Dell Vista/7 Windows disk will actually install and activate automatically on any Dell system you install on it. As you can imagine, it opened doors for piracy, so all this is gone with unique keys stored in the UEFI chip since Windows 8 and 10 (and 10 has the cloud key sync as well for system builder OEMs (the OEM we can buy), and retal versions). If you don't have the disk,m then you have the recovery partition, but it works the same way.

 

For Windows 7 and older, the product key under the system, is deactivated by default, and requires a phone activation to activate it the first time. It is there as a "just in case", the recovery partition is damaged (failed HDD, for example, or simply upgraded), and the system didn't come with disks, or been thrown out.

 

Mr. Dickman could have gotten all the help he needed from ASUS, including downgrading back to Windows 7, but he says that he finds ASUS untrusthworthy. He only trusts Microsoft (so why he bought an ASUS product in the first place, I don't know)

 

[Misanthrope]

21 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Mr. Dickman could have gotten all the help he needed from ASUS, including downgrading back to Windows 7, but he says that he finds ASUS untrusthworthy. He only trusts Microsoft (so why he bought an ASUS product in the first place, I don't know)

That is the one part that smells as "You know how my Lawyer also coached me to ask for":

 

Spoiler

Six billion dollars!

 

 

"So yeah: it is the opinion of our legal team that I've found Asus to be untrustworthy"

[DanielMDA]

6 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

What a dick move

Dickman reminds me those crazy people who would sue a company because their cat died after placing the poor kitty inside their microwave ovens and their argument would be the company didn't include warnings that it isn't safe for cats. No wonder why some people want to burn this world and start all over again.

Its because of people like him that shampoo has instructions.

[GoodBytes]

13 minutes ago, DanielMDA said:

Its because of people like him that shampoo has instructions.

More like bags of 100% peanuts with the warning label "May contain peanuts" (And no, I am not joking).

Example:

 

 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

I see your peanuts, I raise you a toilet

 

 

It's fairly obvious this guy's just in it for the money.  Still, it would be funny as hell if he wins, even if it's just a couple thousand.

[Tech_Dreamer]

can't blame the dude, they did push things a bit too excessively from a consumer perspective and annoyingly so.

[JoostinOnline]

1 hour ago, ModuleLFS said:

Yeah I remember that, but 10000 is one thing and 6 billion is a ehh.. what did that thing contain, research on dark energy or something..

Haggling 101 man.You got to start off high with the intent of settling on a much more reasonable $5.7 billion.

[Apepa]

7 hours ago, Hiitchy said:

I don't even know what to say... But I will say this, if he allowed himself to be connected to the internet without taking any action to block windows from running updates, who's really at fault here? 

 

7 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Well, let's say he is a computer illiterate and only knows how to do basic web browsing and words like my dad, he would not know how to block it either.

IIRC the process of upgrading from 7 to 10 is user-initiated. It prompts you with the offer to upgrade, but you can choose to opt out.

 

He could at least have the decency to try to claim he had 6 billion dollars worth of data on the partition.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

I'm sorry to the Americans on this thread... but it's America. What did you expect? Land of the free... to sue.

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, Captain Chaos said:

I see your peanuts, I raise you a toilet

 

 

It's fairly obvious this guy's just in it for the money.  Still, it would be funny as hell if he wins, even if it's just a couple thousand.

There's no way that's serious, I'm guessing that's an obscure trainspotting reference.

 

Anyway the only thing the thread title is missing is the word Florida before the word Man.

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

More like bags of 100% peanuts with the warning label "May contain peanuts" (And no, I am not joking).

Example:

 

 

I love the ones that say Peanuts: Allergy advice may contain peanuts.

[JoostinOnline]

23 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I'm sorry to the Americans on this thread... but it's America. What did you expect? Land of the free... to sue.

Frivolous law suits aren't actually that common here.  Even serious ones get twisted into something they aren't, often by the party being sued.  You've probably heard about the infamous McDonald's coffee law suit.  McDonald's (and many comedians) made it out to be some big joke.  In reality, the elderly woman had third degree burns all over her legs from the coffee and required skin grafts because they were so bad.  All she wanted was for McDonald's to cover her hospital bills and lost wages.  McDonald's refused to settle for that, which is why it went to trial.

 

McDonald's pushed the whole thing as a woman looking to make some easy money by exploiting the legal system.  It was better for their image.

[mr moose]

well,  It is estimated that around 5% of the population are narcissistic.

[corsairian]

Good for him. It should be illegal for Microsoft to force you to upgrade to windows 10. It just seems wrong in my eyes. Maybe others see it differently. 

 

I'm still on windows 7. 0 plans to move on besides maybe that 8.1 embedded edition Linus and Iuke were talking about. The one installed on ATMs or whatever. I Wanna play around with that version of windows. 

[mr moose]

7 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

Frivolous law suits aren't actually that common here.  Even serious ones get twisted into something they aren't, often by the party being sued.  You've probably heard about the infamous McDonald's coffee law suit.  McDonald's (and many comedians) made it out to be some big joke.  In reality, the elderly woman had third degree burns all over her legs from the coffee and required skin grafts because they were so bad.  All she wanted was for McDonald's to cover her hospital bills and lost wages.  McDonald's refused to settle for that, which is why it went to trial.

 

McDonald's pushed the whole thing as a woman looking to make some easy money by exploiting the legal system.  It was better for their image.

Apparently McDonald's faced 700 similar lawsuits up until that case and did have a warning on the side of the cup indicating the contents are hot.   She spilled it,  not them, she ordered "hot coffee" , they supplied her order.  I'm sorry but while selling a product that can cause 3rd degree burns is dangerous, there is a reason many people argue it wasn't MacDonald's fault. 

[AresKrieger]

8 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

Windows 10 deleted the Windows 7 recovery partition during the upgrade but I call it bullshit.

No windows 10 will actually do that, it doesn't do it right away but it will indeed delete it.

 

Frankly I would actually like for MS to lose this case, not because I think the man has a good argument to get a mountain of money but more so I'm still salty that they decided to make such a terrible OS "the future". I hope they'll be forced to give out their sys 32 source code prior to removal from their OS.

[JoostinOnline]

13 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Apparently McDonald's faced 700 similar lawsuits up until that case and did have a warning on the side of the cup indicating the contents are hot.   She spilled it,  not them, she ordered "hot coffee" , they supplied her order.  I'm sorry but while selling a product that can cause 3rd degree burns is dangerous, there is a reason many people argue it wasn't MacDonald's fault. 

Hot coffee isn't normally that hot.  People argue for McDonald's because they don't have any of the facts.  Third degree burns are the worst kind you can get.  Her skin literally melted off.  She wasn't after money or revenge, all she wanted was them to help cover the medical expenses.  McDonald's rejected the settlement and offered her $800.

 

Edit: Here is a good summary: https://www.caoc.org/?pg=facts

[mr moose]

25 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

Hot coffee isn't normally that hot.  People argue for McDonald's because they don't have any of the facts.  Third degree burns are the worst kind you can get.  Her skin literally melted off.  She wasn't after money or revenge, all she wanted was them to help cover the medical expenses.  McDonald's rejected the settlement and offered her $800.

 

Edit: Here is a good summary: https://www.caoc.org/?pg=facts

I have read all about it,  just because I disagree and form an opinion that aligns with many others doesn't mean I don't "know the facts".   

 

Of course McDonald admitted the coffee was hot. they have said, as they have in the last 700 cases, that that is the temperature they serve it at.   People keep buying it and drinking it, why would they change the temperature?  

 

Regardless of where she was sitting, or if the car was moving or why she had the cup between her legs, the fact is Mcdonald's did not make her spill it.

 

McDonald's has to admit that most consumers don't know how hot coffee has to be to cause 3rd degree burns.  It would be foolish to try and argue that the general public has any intrinsic knowledge of such things.  However why is this even a point? we may as well try to argue car manufacturers are responsible for broken bones in an accident because victims don't know how much pressure it takes to cause a fracture.  Hot coffee =burns.  hotter coffee = severe burns,  people know this it is not a hidden fact and McDonald's never tried to claim otherwise.

 

 

[captain_to_fire]

4 hours ago, Captain Chaos said:

It's fairly obvious this guy's just in it for the money.  Still, it would be funny as hell if he wins, even if it's just a couple thousand.

If Microsoft pays him some Amazon gift cards and a treat to Chipotle then why not? 

[Tsuki]

i see this going one of a couple different ways.

1.) microsoft pays him a fraction of what he's asking to fuck off

2.) microsoft lets it go to court and lets the judge tell him to fuck off

3.) microsoft lets it go to court, but drags it out so long the guy ends up owing his lawyer(who never shouldve taken the case to begin with) a small fortune, and then microsoft wins anyways because wtf is this guy thinking.

[mr moose]

19 minutes ago, Tsuki said:

3.) microsoft lets it go to court, but drags it out so long the guy ends up owing his lawyer(who never shouldve taken the case to begin with) a small fortune, and then microsoft wins anyways because wtf is this guy thinking.

From what I've seen this isn't likely to happen.  Contrary to popular opinion, no corporation is actually out to cause grief  for the sake of "teaching a lesson" they may drag it on if they feel they have to set a legal precedent of some description to deter further cases coming along, however if they can make it go away quickly without looking guilty they will.