4 ms·

I thought I was the first to file a class action lawsuit against the makers of this in December 1995, but now I see someone else filed about a month earlier. T

by gfosco 7y ago

I thought I was the first to file a class action lawsuit against the makers of this in December 1995, but now I see someone else filed about a month earlier. The "driver" files were just renamed Windows files. I was 16 years old, so my dads name was used. I had provided the technical proof behind the claim, so I even got part of the attorney's fees. (Marotto v Syncronys Softcorp) https://sec.report/Document/0000950148-96-000900/ https://sec.report/Document/0000950148-96-000900/

AdmiralAsshat 7y ago
How much did you get as part of the settlement?
- gfosco 7y ago
  $2,000 from Syncronys and $2,000 from the attorneys fees (which totaled $35,000). That got me my first car, and a lesson... The attorneys always win.
  - lsllc 7y ago
    I'm hoping that you're actually an attorney now!
    - PhasmaFelis 7y ago
      I know several attorneys, and man, I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
      - Teknoman117 7y ago
        That's become my feeling as well. I've always looked at them making a ton of money without needing to start a company and become somewhat envious (none of what I actually enjoy working on seems to be startup material). Then I see two of my friends pursue careers in law after becoming attorneys, and wow, I now think my 9-5 job for a tech giant is a better gig. They're miserable.
        mrtksn 7y ago
        Can you elaborate? What's so bad about being an attorney?
        cturner 7y ago
        Their work life is an unending series of zero-sum games. One path to happiness is to set your life up to minimise your exposure to zero-sum games, this is unavailable to them.
jacquesm 7y ago
That's quite a feat, at 16 years old I was still solidly stuck in 8 bit 6809 country, and I'm fairly sure I would not have been able to follow the mechanisms at work here.
owyn 7y ago
Wikipedia describes a bit of this saga [1], and the conclusion was that they were ordered to settle with the FTC and issue rebates and then: Syncronys eventually filed for bankruptcy in July 1998 after releasing other poorly received tools. A large number of its creditors were customers who had not received their rebates for SoftRAM. I wonder what the story was from the company perspective? Sounds like it just was a total fraud, but I can imagine a scenario where some programmer was ordered to build something that they didn't know how to implement and some manager told them to ship it anyway? I found this article about the bankruptcy [2] which has a priceless quote indicating total denial to the end: Interestingly enough, two days before the company sought bankruptcy protection, Syncronys CEO Rainer Poertner was busy touting a new product called UpgradeAID 98 and claiming that the company's problems were history. "It's been a really long time since SoftRAM 95. In the meantime the company has released 12 new products," he said on July 13. "We released a product in a rush with the release of Windows 95." So far, UpgradeAID 98 has met with skepticism. The product is designed to allow consumer who upgrade their PCs to Windows 98 to revert back to Windows 95. And this is hilarious: Poertner, who was at lunch, could not be reached for comment. Also, he exists! [3] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM [2] https://www.cnet.com/news/softram-95-maker-in-chapter-11/ https://www.cnet.com/news/softram-95-maker-in-chapter-11/ [3] https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainer-poertner-37bb9511/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainer-poertner-37bb9511/
- gfosco 7y ago
  It was a great scam, and I have no doubt it was totally intentional. They still made money. It was a placebo, and yet people would call in to the QVC show and talk about how much faster their computer is after installing it.
  - raverbashing 7y ago
    Sounds like a lot of products promising "military encryption" (at least around the 90s/early 2000's)
    - ygra 7y ago

by gfosco 7y ago

AdmiralAsshat 7y ago

How much did you get as part of the settlement?

gfosco 7y ago
$2,000 from Syncronys and $2,000 from the attorneys fees (which totaled $35,000). That got me my first car, and a lesson... The attorneys always win.
- lsllc 7y ago
  I'm hoping that you're actually an attorney now!
  - PhasmaFelis 7y ago
    I know several attorneys, and man, I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
    - Teknoman117 7y ago
      That's become my feeling as well. I've always looked at them making a ton of money without needing to start a company and become somewhat envious (none of what I actually enjoy working on seems to be startup material). Then I see two of my friends pursue careers in law after becoming attorneys, and wow, I now think my 9-5 job for a tech giant is a better gig. They're miserable.
      - mrtksn 7y ago
        Can you elaborate? What's so bad about being an attorney?
        cturner 7y ago
        Their work life is an unending series of zero-sum games. One path to happiness is to set your life up to minimise your exposure to zero-sum games, this is unavailable to them.

jacquesm 7y ago

That's quite a feat, at 16 years old I was still solidly stuck in 8 bit 6809 country, and I'm fairly sure I would not have been able to follow the mechanisms at work here.

owyn 7y ago

Wikipedia describes a bit of this saga [1], and the conclusion was that they were ordered to settle with the FTC and issue rebates and then: Syncronys eventually filed for bankruptcy in July 1998 after releasing other poorly received tools. A large number of its creditors were customers who had not received their rebates for SoftRAM. I wonder what the story was from the company perspective? Sounds like it just was a total fraud, but I can imagine a scenario where some programmer was ordered to build something that they didn't know how to implement and some manager told them to ship it anyway? I found this article about the bankruptcy [2] which has a priceless quote indicating total denial to the end: Interestingly enough, two days before the company sought bankruptcy protection, Syncronys CEO Rainer Poertner was busy touting a new product called UpgradeAID 98 and claiming that the company's problems were history. "It's been a really long time since SoftRAM 95. In the meantime the company has released 12 new products," he said on July 13. "We released a product in a rush with the release of Windows 95." So far, UpgradeAID 98 has met with skepticism. The product is designed to allow consumer who upgrade their PCs to Windows 98 to revert back to Windows 95. And this is hilarious: Poertner, who was at lunch, could not be reached for comment. Also, he exists! [3] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM [2] https://www.cnet.com/news/softram-95-maker-in-chapter-11/ https://www.cnet.com/news/softram-95-maker-in-chapter-11/ [3] https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainer-poertner-37bb9511/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainer-poertner-37bb9511/

gfosco 7y ago
It was a great scam, and I have no doubt it was totally intentional. They still made money. It was a placebo, and yet people would call in to the QVC show and talk about how much faster their computer is after installing it.
- raverbashing 7y ago
  Sounds like a lot of products promising "military encryption" (at least around the 90s/early 2000's)
  - ygra 7y ago