Wait, what!?! – Newest PS3 update has a catch 22

Sony has gotten a lot of bad press lately…
And here’s some more.

After suffering at the hands of PS3 owners in several class-action lawsuits (one after they removed Linux ability and one more for their most recent security debacle), Sony has finally found a way around the problem.  If you accept the terms and conditions for the newest mandatory update for your PS3, you will be giving away your right to join a class action lawsuit against Sony.  They couldn’t improve their products and security, but they could sure take your rights away fast.

The Examiner caught the fine print in the latest system update, which states:

ANY DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION OR COURT, WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR AS A NAMED OR UNNAMED MEMBER IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL LEGAL ACTION, UNLESS BOTH YOU AND THE SONY ENTITY WITH WHICH YOU HAVE A DISPUTE SPECIFICALLY AGREE TO DO SO IN WRITING FOLLOWING INITIATION OF THE ARBITRATION. THIS PROVISION DOES NOT PRECLUDE YOUR PARTICIPATION AS A MEMBER IN A CLASS ACTION FILED ON OR BEFORE AUGUST 20, 2011.

How do you opt out of this lunacy?  I’m glad you asked.  Now of course it’s not in Sony’s best interests to make it easy for you to opt out of their lawsuit protection so you will have to do a bit of work.  First, you need to send a letter (yeah those paper things you sent to your pen pal in elementary school) to Sony.  If I were you, I would get a delivery receipt, a signature upon delivery, and track the letter to make sure it arrives (needless to say you need to keep all of these records) because a company that makes its customers agree to terms like these is not above saying your letter never arrived.  Here is some more info for the letter:

IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THE BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER IN THIS SECTION 15, YOU MUST NOTIFY SNEI IN WRITING WITHIN 30 DAYS OF THE DATE THAT YOU ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT. YOUR WRITTEN NOTIFICATION MUST BE MAILED TO 6080 CENTER DRIVE, 10TH FLOOR, LOS ANGELES, CA 90045, ATTN: LEGAL DEPARTMENT/ARBITRATION AND MUST INCLUDE: (1) YOUR NAME, (2) YOUR ADDRESS, (3) YOUR PSN ACCOUNT NUMBER, IF YOU HAVE ONE, AND (4) A CLEAR STATEMENT THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO RESOLVE DISPUTES WITH ANY SONY ENTITY THROUGH ARBITRATION.

So your choices are: 1. agree not to ever join a class action suit against Sony, 2. don’t play games online, or 3. send a piece of paper to the man and tell him you won’t play into his game.  Choose Wisely.

About Jesse (The Pen of Doom)

A small time blogger with big time dreams and a love for everything geek.
Bookmark the permalink.

One Comment

  1. Yeah this is why Microsoft leads the wst sonyay again

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.