Apple sued: Can you hear me now?
Permalink | February 2nd, 2006
A man has sued Apple claiming that iPods can lead to hearing loss and do not come with enough warning labels.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of John Kiel Patterson in a district court in San Jose, California. He wants it to be a class action.
The lawsuit says the iPod can generate more than 115 decibels, a level that could damage hearing to a user exposed for more than 28 seconds a day.
Mr Patterson’s lawyer, Steve W Berman, told Associated Press news agency that his client did not know if he had suffered hearing loss but that that was not the issue.
Is this guy serious? This is just more proof that there are A) too many lawyers with too much time on their hands, and B) too many greedy/stupid people who take advantage of “A”.
[via The BBC]
February 3rd, 2006 at 2:00 am
If Mr. Patterson of San Jose keeps even one innocent person from losing hearing the world is better off. I think you are tone deaf.
February 3rd, 2006 at 10:01 am
greedytriallawyer, I think you are missing the point. It takes only a little common sense to figure out that if you turn an audio device to its peak volume and try and listen to it via headphones, you could damage your ears. I guarentee that most personal stereo equipment, especially receivers, can exceed 115dB, yet they all have earphone jacks. Why not sue all of them too? Here’s another example, if you use a kitchen knife incorrectly, you could seriously injure or kill yourself. Should we sue knife manufacturers for not making the use of a knife fool proof? No. We should use our head.
There are a number of reasons for allowing the iPod to play at higher volumes, the most immediate is to take advantage of an external speaker system. If you crank the volume up, and it hurts your ears, turn the volume down — kind of like the first time you touched something really hot, you stopped touching hot things, right? Simple, isn’t it?
I think the point that is trying to be made here is that sometimes all it takes is a little common sense. Trying to exploit the legal system and essentially blackmail large companies (who find it easier/cheaper to settle rather than take the case to litigation) in order to save people from themselves (and make a little, no, quite a bit of cash while doing so) is not warranted.