A few thoughts:Getting into a lawsuit on this does not seem like a smart deal to me. As Nic wisely suggested, time is better spent developing rather than with lawyers. if someone decides to go the legal route, and I am not going to stand in their way in any way, shape, or form, the time you spend with a lawyer is significant and above the necessary bill rates.I seriously doubt that you will be able to get class action status. I don't know what the sales of monotouch/droid are and I don't know who it takes to achieve a class action status, but it doesn't seem to be a large enough number of sales. I could be wrong. From what I heard, the mono management had about 5 minutes of advanced knowledge of what was going to happen. I doubt that the half-off deal was in anyway associated with the upcoming shutdown. While I think we are all upset over the firings and shutdowns of the products, lets not go looking for a scapegoat. My suggestion is to just let this go given what we know at this time. Wally > Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:24:57 +0100 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > CC: [email protected]; [email protected] > Subject: Re: [MonoTouch] Class action lawsuit? > > here's my thoughts: > > First, if the restructuring etc hadn't happened, you would have had a > great product by now, with 3 months of experience in it, which is > good. So I doubt you can blame the MonoTouch/MD people (ie, Miguel and > co) for that (which you didn't....) > > Which leads me on to the other one: while Miguel has said he was in > the process of spinning Mono* out of Novell from late last year, I > suspect they didn't know anything about the firings and general > product killing until slightly before we did - I would guess, tho I > dont KNOW, he might have known at most 30 mins before _everyone else_ > at Mono* did, which would be about 24 hours before all of us found > out. This is only 'cos he was a VP of something. Being he got fired > too, I suspect he didn't. > > I've been thru an acquission and subsequent shutdown of a team once, > and generally, only the top management (in our case, our dev/country > manager, hence why I suspect Miguel might have found out about it > slightly before everyone else there) find out before hand, and usually > only slightly before as they have to have a little time to think about > it and answer questions from the rest of the staff. But not always. > > But I seriously doubt that when the half-price deal was put into > motion, anyone on the MD/MT team knew what was going to happen. I > believe (maybe wrongly?) that they acted in good faith. Now, > attachmate/Novell.... thats another story. Worst. Customer. Service. > and. communication. EVER. Hence why the class action would be on > novell/attachmate, and not the MT/MD team. > > > > > > On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 08:14, Pete Macko <[email protected]> wrote: > > I dont mind the monotouch part as much as getting suckered into buying the > > pile of shit that is/was monodroid. Shame on me for trying to financially > > support a decent idea - should have waited for it to age a bit before > > busting out my credit card. $199 for a worthless broken steaming pile of > > dung. More than one person at Asstachmate must have known the real story > > before they cooked up the 'we are showing our gratitude to our loyal > > customers by offering monodroid at half off' (I.e. "Here is our chance to > > rectally invade the mono community one more time before they figure out > > what a bunch of pond scum douching asshats we are") marketing campaign. > > > > > > > > Sent from my iPhone > > > > On Jul 13, 2011, at 2:56, Nic Wise <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> For me it's actually moot, being my updates expired about 3 days > >> before the whole thing went down.... > >> > >> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 00:34, Chris Hamblett <[email protected]> > >> wrote: > >>> Class action suits work differently then regular suits. In the few I've > >>> been in, all I had to do was fill out a form which took ten minutes, wait > >>> 8 months, and received a check for the settlement amount. The lawyers > >>> make the money from the overall quantity of those that sign on and in > >>> many cases they force the defendant to pay there fee for making us take > >>> them to court, thus getting the full refund back for the clients they > >>> represent. Attach mate also broke their end of a contract, so they > >>> wouldn't be in a position to control if it is credit or not. That would > >>> be like you canceling a cell phone contract, then simply giving them some > >>> of your unwanted stuff of equal value to what is owed rather then paying > >>> any fees. Even if the license terms stipulate that we donated the fee to > >>> them and they were not obligated to provide anything in return, it would > >>> take a very crooked judge to agree that those terms are not fraudulent > >>> and unreasonable > >>> > >>> The biggest risk would involve the amount of people that sign on to the > >>> suit, which would immediately relate to the amount of a return a firm can > >>> expect to get paid for winning. They would look over the case and it's > >>> likely chance of winning, then if they found it to be in the client's > >>> favor they would poll how many individuals are interested in signing on. > >>> Anyone with the time to read these lists is not so busy coding that they > >>> can't fill out a form, but the risk is still there that not many people > >>> care about a couple hundred dollars. That's the whole push behind mail in > >>> rebates, a company rarely gets concerned of paying for them. > >>> > >>> Unfortunately, I don't know any class action firms, so it's a null point. > >>> I'm hoping someone else does, though. > >>> > >>> Sent from my iPad > >>> > >>> On Jul 12, 2011, at 5:40 PM, "Nic Wise" <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> > >>>> Go for it, but I'm with Jason (and also not in the US). I make more in > >>>> a month and a half than the cost of the license, and my apps don't > >>>> sell _that_ well. > >>>> > >>>> And to be honest, I'd rather write apps than try to get compensation. > >>>> It's a better use of my time. > >>>> > >>>> But there is no way I'd stop you doing it. I'd read the license terms > >>>> tho. Your "pay out" could be ($499 / 12 months * number of months > >>>> left). Even if it was a corporate license, an hour or 2 of lawyer time > >>>> would be eaten up. If it worth spending the time for, say, $150 in > >>>> Attachmate credit? (being it's seldom a cash payout) > >>>> > >>>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 20:33, Chris Hamblett <[email protected]> > >>>> wrote: > >>>>> You are assuming that there are class action cases worth tens of > >>>>> millions > >>>>> all over the place. There are actually a lot of less then rich lawyers > >>>>> because they have to compete for the same cases; I can't see a lawyer > >>>>> choosing to starve then accept a $20k+ paycheck for a month or two > >>>>> worth of > >>>>> actual work, but then again I'm not a lawyer and they might choose the > >>>>> principle of begging on the street then work for less then a certain > >>>>> amount. > >>>>> Just think of the lawyers who take a case of medical malpractice worth > >>>>> $10k > >>>>> to $15k; if they had soo many million dollar cases, they would > >>>>> constantly > >>>>> turn down those "low profile" cases. It's like a software developer > >>>>> never > >>>>> working for less then $40 an hour and choosing to get food stamps > >>>>> instead > >>>>> because the good paying jobs are gone; this is rarely the case, and > >>>>> people > >>>>> always take less then thrilling jobs while hoping for something better. > >>>>> > >>>>> ________________________________ > >>>>> Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:24:47 -0500 > >>>>> Subject: Re: [MonoTouch] Class action lawsuit? > >>>>> From: [email protected] > >>>>> To: [email protected] > >>>>> CC: [email protected] > >>>>> > >>>>> not even a bad lawyer would be interested in a class action with a $40k > >>>>> liability. They're interested in cases in the tens of millions. > >>>>> I'm as pissed as anyone at Attachmate, but suing them is just going to > >>>>> make > >>>>> the lawyers richer, and give you an ulcer in the process. > >>>>> At this point I'm content to wait and see what Xamarin comes up with. > >>>>> > >>>>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 1:22 PM, Chris Hamblett <[email protected]> > >>>>> wrote: > >>>>> > >>>>> Does anyone know a good class action lawyer that would be interested > >>>>> in pursuing Attachmate to get some of the license fees refunded to > >>>>> current > >>>>> paid owners? I bet their is at least $40k worth of licensing that > >>>>> Attachmate > >>>>> is not supporting per the purchase terms. This is especially pertinent > >>>>> to > >>>>> those that are having license activation problems and cannot even use > >>>>> the > >>>>> deployment portion of the IDE. > >>>>> ~Chris > >>>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>>> MonoTouch mailing list > >>>>> [email protected] > >>>>> http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/monotouch > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>>> MonoTouch mailing list > >>>>> [email protected] > >>>>> http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/monotouch > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> -- > >>>> Nic Wise > >>>> t. +44 7788 592 806 | @fastchicken | http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicwise > >>>> b. http://www.fastchicken.co.nz/ > >>>> > >>>> mobileAgent (for FreeAgent): get your accounts in your pocket. > >>>> http://goo.gl/IuBU > >>>> Trip Wallet: Keep track of your budget on the go: http://goo.gl/ePhKa > >>>> London Bike App: Find the nearest Boris Bike, and get riding! > >>>> http://goo.gl/Icp2 > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> MonoTouch mailing list > >>> [email protected] > >>> http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/monotouch > >>> > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Nic Wise > >> t. +44 7788 592 806 | @fastchicken | http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicwise > >> b. http://www.fastchicken.co.nz/ > >> > >> mobileAgent (for FreeAgent): get your accounts in your pocket. > >> http://goo.gl/IuBU > >> Trip Wallet: Keep track of your budget on the go: http://goo.gl/ePhKa > >> London Bike App: Find the nearest Boris Bike, and get riding! > >> http://goo.gl/Icp2 > >> _______________________________________________ > >> MonoTouch mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/monotouch > > > > > > -- > Nic Wise > t. +44 7788 592 806 | @fastchicken | http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicwise > b. http://www.fastchicken.co.nz/ > > mobileAgent (for FreeAgent): get your accounts in your pocket. > http://goo.gl/IuBU > Trip Wallet: Keep track of your budget on the go: http://goo.gl/ePhKa > London Bike App: Find the nearest Boris Bike, and get riding! > http://goo.gl/Icp2 > _______________________________________________ > MonoTouch mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/monotouch
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