Class action lawyers estimate there are 15 million consumers eligible to participate in a lawsuit that charges Microsoft allowed PC makers to slap "Windows Vista Capable" stickers on PCs that, in fact, could run only the most bare-bones version of the operating system.
How can they possibly contact all 15 million? The lawyers are hoping to do so through -- what else? -- an automatic Windows Update.
Windows Updates are normally used to provide PC owners with periodic software and system updates and attorneys at Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell in Seattle think the updates would be an ideal way to contact potential plaintiffs.
The lawyers are basically using Microsoft's argument against the company. Microsoft has repeatedly said it cannot identify the people who bought PCs under its Vista Capable marketing campaign in 2006 and early 2007, so the plaintiffs' attorneys say the Windows Update is the perfect way to reach them.
An expert used by the lawyers said in a court filing that it would take Microsoft just "one to two man hours to complete the program, address quality assurance issues, tag and upload the Update as ready for distribution."
In a motion submitted to U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman, the lawyers sketched out a notification plan that, besides a Windows update, would include print ads in publications such as USA Today and banner ads on sites including Yahoo.com and MSN.
The lawyers have also asked Judge Pechman for a summary judgment that one aspect of Microsoft's program was an "unfair and deceptive" act under the Consumer Protection Act.
