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Anyone can sue anyone else at any time. If you think Intel isn't going to be sued for this, you're wrong.

by golfer 9y ago

ianai 9y ago
They need some legal standing or the case can be dismissed out of hand. It may very well be a question of who has the better legal team.
- AnimalMuppet 9y ago
  > They need some legal standing or the case can be dismissed out of hand. Yes and no. Yes, Intel would get a chance to claim that the case should be dismissed out of hand. To do that, they have to prove that, even assuming all the claimed facts are true, the people suing still don't have a valid case. That's a high bar. It can be reached - there's a reason that preliminary summary judgment is a thing in court cases - but it takes a really flawed case to be dismissed in this way. How flawed? SCO v. IBM was not completely dismissed on preliminary summary judgment, and that was the most flawed case I've ever seen. > It may very well be a question of who has the better legal team. Well, Intel can afford to hire the best. A huge class-action suit can sometimes attract the best to the other side as well, though. (There's not just one "best", so there's enough for both sides of the same court case.) IANAL, but it looks to me like there's at least the potential for a valid court case. CPUs are (approximately) priced according to their ability to handle workloads; if they can't provide the advertised performance, they didn't deserve the price they sold for.
cornholio 9y ago
It depends on how they handle user compensation. Going by the FDIV precedent, they should typically replace all defective products for free, and they will be in the clear. What I meant was that the presence of the bug itself is not a valid cause, for example you can't claim that due to the error you lost 1 trillion dollars via a software hack - even if it's true. If Intel can prove they acted ethically when disclosing the bug and that they replaced / compensated users up to the value of the CPU, they are in the clear.
- golfer 9y ago
  Good call. Will be fascinating to see how this plays out!
- macintux 9y ago
  I read that this bug goes back several years; "replacing all defective products for free" could be a massive expense, and assuming it includes current chips, there's also some lag time and engineering effort to get to the point where they could start doing so.
- throwaway613834 9y ago
  How do they replace defective products? Or more specifically how do you get your laptop CPU replaced if Intel offers a replacement for free?
  - cornholio 9y ago
    Presumably, by visiting an agreed service center in your western, sue-happy country, or sending the computer to the nearest one on your expense in the rest of the world. If the CPU is not replaceable or no longer in service, you would get a voucher for the lost value of the CPU/computer that is now 30% slower. Something like 10-20$ for anything older than 3 years, so most people won't bother. If Apple can do it, surely Intel will manage, but it will cost them in the billion order of magnitude, a non-negligible fraction of their yearly profit.

Anyone can sue anyone else at any time. If you think Intel isn't going to be sued for this, you're wrong.

by golfer 9y ago

Anyone can sue anyone else at any time. If you think Intel isn't going to be sued for this, you're wrong.

They need some legal standing or the case can be dismissed out of hand. It may very well be a question of who has the better legal team.

AnimalMuppet 9y ago
> They need some legal standing or the case can be dismissed out of hand. Yes and no. Yes, Intel would get a chance to claim that the case should be dismissed out of hand. To do that, they have to prove that, even assuming all the claimed facts are true, the people suing still don't have a valid case. That's a high bar. It can be reached - there's a reason that preliminary summary judgment is a thing in court cases - but it takes a really flawed case to be dismissed in this way. How flawed? SCO v. IBM was not completely dismissed on preliminary summary judgment, and that was the most flawed case I've ever seen. > It may very well be a question of who has the better legal team. Well, Intel can afford to hire the best. A huge class-action suit can sometimes attract the best to the other side as well, though. (There's not just one "best", so there's enough for both sides of the same court case.) IANAL, but it looks to me like there's at least the potential for a valid court case. CPUs are (approximately) priced according to their ability to handle workloads; if they can't provide the advertised performance, they didn't deserve the price they sold for.

cornholio 9y ago

It depends on how they handle user compensation. Going by the FDIV precedent, they should typically replace all defective products for free, and they will be in the clear. What I meant was that the presence of the bug itself is not a valid cause, for example you can't claim that due to the error you lost 1 trillion dollars via a software hack - even if it's true. If Intel can prove they acted ethically when disclosing the bug and that they replaced / compensated users up to the value of the CPU, they are in the clear.

golfer 9y ago
Good call. Will be fascinating to see how this plays out!
macintux 9y ago
I read that this bug goes back several years; "replacing all defective products for free" could be a massive expense, and assuming it includes current chips, there's also some lag time and engineering effort to get to the point where they could start doing so.
throwaway613834 9y ago
How do they replace defective products? Or more specifically how do you get your laptop CPU replaced if Intel offers a replacement for free?
- cornholio 9y ago
  Presumably, by visiting an agreed service center in your western, sue-happy country, or sending the computer to the nearest one on your expense in the rest of the world. If the CPU is not replaceable or no longer in service, you would get a voucher for the lost value of the CPU/computer that is now 30% slower. Something like 10-20$ for anything older than 3 years, so most people won't bother. If Apple can do it, surely Intel will manage, but it will cost them in the billion order of magnitude, a non-negligible fraction of their yearly profit.