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Stupid Lawsuits

by Nicholas Barnard on November 16th, 2011

I kinda enjoy reading class action lawsuits, and I often make a claim when I’m a part of a class.

Sometimes one crosses my email box that is just, well a waste of bits. Like this one:

The lawsuit claims that Wal-Mart and Netflix reached an unlawful agreement under which Wal-Mart would withdraw from the online DVD rental market and Netflix would not sell new DVDs. The lawsuit claims that this agreement caused Netflix subscribers to pay higher prices for online DVD rentals. Wal-Mart and Netflix deny: (1) that they entered into such an agreement, (2) that they have done anything wrong, (3) that the Plaintiffs have been harmed in any way, or (4) that the price of online DVD rentals was raised or inflated by any agreement between Wal-Mart and Netflix.- In re: Online DVD Rental Antitrust Litigation

This completely annoyed me, to the point that I wanted nothing to do with it, so I filled instructions and excluded myself with this snappy little missive:

November 16, 2011

In re: Online DVD Rental Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2029

To Whom It May Concern:
Please exclude me from the Netflix Litigation Class. I have no desire to support meritless lawsuit such as this one. WalMart’s DVD service never took off, it was their business failing that was the cause of this. The Class Representatives and the Class Council should be ashamed of themselves for wasting resources and time when they could be doing something that creates actual value in the world.

Regards,

Nicholas Barnard

The relevancy of posting this here will become clear within a week.

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