ATI sued for misleading HDCP claims

It almost looked like ATI was going to get off scott free after it was discovered that their (along with NVIDIA's) "HDCP ready" video cards weren't so HDCP ready after all. They sure gave it the old college try, covering their tracks on the website by modifying previous marketing material, and leaking pics of a forthcoming HDMI/HDCP card to the press, but it seems they didn't try hard enough, since a class action lawsuit is being levied at them. The suit alleges that since 2003 ATI has been claiming HDCP on certain video cards, but since that HDCP isn't fully realized (as in, it doesn't do the whole HDCP thing), ATI is in a breach of warranty, violating state consumer protection statutes, and a whole bunch of other wild lawyer-speak claims that don't seem so wild in this situation. We're still waiting for ATI to speak out about this, since they've been pretty mum on the whole affair, but we're not holding our breath.

[bowlhed @ May 8th 2006 12:48PM]

its pretty rude of them,but i guess they will get away with it.

im sure vista will bring the HDCP issue more up to date,and bring genuine cards to the scene next eyar

[Chris @ May 8th 2006 12:57PM]

You expect Vista next year?

[Jeff @ May 8th 2006 1:12PM]

This is just like when I bought a modem that promised 56K upgradeability. Did it? No. I was stuck with a 33.6K connection. Since then I've learned to wait and see if things are compatible and not just take the marketer's word for it.

[Paul @ May 8th 2006 1:27PM]

I was what I, the consumer who purchased one of these cards, will recieve as compensation for this classa ction lawsuit.

A check for $2.93? A $10 dollar rebate on my next ATI purchase?

[Adam Mabe @ May 8th 2006 1:39PM]

Do we have any idea of how to get in on this class action lawsuit? I bought one of these too. Any info from anyone is appreciated. Even if it is a lousy $30 or something. It'd be really nice if they just gave us cards that did what they originally advertized...but that'll be the day. HA.

[Perrey Z. @ May 8th 2006 2:10PM]

Good. ATI is getting EXACTLY what they deserve for misleading advertisement.

[Marshall @ May 8th 2006 2:28PM]

It would be nice if they did give us new cards, and they could use all the "nice" they can get if this case goes forward. Their web page changes stink of "cover-up" to me, and might for a jury too; this could be hard for ATI to win.

[anon @ May 8th 2006 3:53PM]

This sounds exactly like what happened awhile back when Palm (I believe) was telling people that their units could produce a lot more colours simultaneously than they actually could. Same type of case I assume... and I don't remember them getting off scott-free either.

[Revrant @ May 8th 2006 5:08PM]

Wow, Corporates whores abound then aren't we? Not getting your dosage of DRM-Grass, that's dangerous, when Sheep don't get told what to do, they think for themselves, and attack those who usually tell them.

A. The Corporate-friendly Technology IS NOT widely available nor supported.

B. There's room for error too, did ATI fully understand that HDMI and HDCP did in fact not coincide?

C. They DID remove it from their site, yet, P-Whatever, they did NOT advertise any kind of Readiness to the general public.

D. Does previewing a card that is fully HDCP compliant sound like an attempt to make good on their wrong doing? Yes it does.

Now, if the Sheep will stop Baa'ing in protest for a moment to think about it, it's not that terrible, oh Engadget, great ****ing job, reporting ONLY the Negative ATI news, makes you look credible as hell. What? Example: Support for video rendering using the card for massive performance gains? Gasp...Nothing from Engadget.

[DarkSol @ May 8th 2006 6:06PM]

Revrant:

Way to show you're an ATI fanboy through and through. Did you even look at the picture at the beginning of this post? Notice what it says... "HDCP Ready" If that is from their marketing site, then they meant what they said. Also, did you read the articles that are linked in the past Engadget articles? If you had, you would have seen that ATI has been saying "We're HDCP Ready" since the Raideon 8500.

So please, grow up and stop posting FUD.

[Revrant @ May 9th 2006 12:09AM]

Dark:

Way to show you're a good Engadget sheep through and through. Guess what? That's not advertising, that's on their SITE, it's a feature listing, if you'd of known anything but the complicated art of "FUD" you'd recognize that. How the holy blue hell can ATI be ready for a technology all the way back to 8500, when it was BARELY out of the "Wowing Corporations" phase? You care to explain that, oh, Master of "FUD"?

[ByteCrawler @ May 9th 2006 1:06AM]

To those wondering (specifically Poster #5) how to get in no the class-action lawsuit, usually just registering the product with the Manufacturer gets you on the list alone.

With the class-action lawsuit that Microsoft had to settle in NY, I received at least 5 copies of the same letter for each Microsoft product I had purchased and registered in the past that was in breach.

[E71 @ May 9th 2006 7:54PM]

Sue them. Not just because of the whole HDCP thang but because these two X1900 cards I bought are only a tad bit better than a single X1900 card. I mean, come on' -- if you're going to pay for 2 cards you should get twice the performance. Bstrds!

[Revrant @ May 9th 2006 11:23PM]

Crossfire was a dud because the current MB chipset used didn't have two full X16 lanes like the nForce 4, which is why all the ****ing comparisons piss me off endlessly, there's no way you can test the two side by side when the current Xpress is bottlenecked to hell. What you want is the new 3200 Crossfire, full X16 both ways, lots of better features, I'd wait for the price to come down though, very comparable speeds to two 7900/7800s in SLI too.

[Steve Hubbard @ Jul 6th 2006 11:19AM]

Would it be acceptable to any of you if they (ATI, Nvidia, whoever) offered an add-in PCI card or USB dongle? Is it possible to create such a device that can make HDCP work on a graphics card that "supports" it?

[Julian Emmett Turner @ Apr 30th 2007 1:14PM]

I've been receiving emails from some lawyer ever since I posted a scathing post in Anandtech/Daily Tech comments. I fiannly got back to the guy but I think he moved on without me. :D