Excerpt from winmag newsletter
AOL Class-Action Lawsuit Filed
Just this week, news reports describe how an angry AOL subscriber hired a lawyer to file:
...a class-action lawsuit alleging that the latest version of the company's software--version 5.0--constitutes a deceptive trade practice and violates consumer-protection and computer-tampering laws. The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Alexandria [VA], seeks damages of up to $1,000 for each of the 8 million people who installed the software.
The full news story with more details is now making the rounds: You can read the Washington Post's column on it here: washingtonpost.com
A related report carried by the Associated Press also says (in part):
AOL could not be reached for comment immediately, but a spokeswoman earlier said complaints about interference by its software were overblown and the result of customers not understanding that if they click yes during installation to allow AOL to become their default Internet browser, AOL largely takes over all the online functions on the computer.
Wow! Selecting a default *browser* takes over "all the online functions on the computer?" That's like asking for a car wash, and being told that really means you're locked into buying a whole new car.
In my tests, AOL5 installed networking and system files that had absolutely nothing whatsoever--- nada, zip, zero--- to do with choosing a default browser. In actuality, choosing a default browser should ONLY affect things such as which application opens HTML and related web files; that's all. There is no part of choosing a default browser that requires installing network adapters and 4.5 megs of system files!
Reader JC Ford says the AOL spoksperson "...essentially blames the users for the problem, but her comments say a lot about AOL's practices. They are also flat-out wrong. I did not chose to use AOL as the default browser, and my system was still hosed."
I don't know if the lawyers really have a case, but the AOL spokesperson's comments make me hope they do: It really looks like AOL is either incredibly callous or incredibly clueless. Either way, it's not OK.
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