[conspire] Last day to register for refunds from Seagate v. Cho!

[Rick Moen]

Quoting prosolutions at gmx.net (prosolutions at gmx.net):

> Thought I would mention that the submission deadline for cash refunds in
> the Seagate v. Cho case for anyone who bought Seagate hard drives in the
> past few years is tomorrow, Wednesday, 14 May 2008.
> 
> http://www.harddrive-settlement.com

It's worth knowing about, but the limitations are worth knowing, as
well:

1.  If you bought a non-OEM Seagate hard drive from an authorised
Seagate Technologies dealer or distributor between 2001-03-22 and
2005-12-31 for your own use, you can get back in cash 5% of your
purchase price before sales tax and rebates, provided you send in paper
proof of purchase or of the S/N via USPS mail.  _Or_ you can opt for
"free backup and restore software".

2.  If you bought a non-OEM Seagate hard drive from an authorised
Seagate Technologies dealer or distributor between 2006-01-01 and
2007-09-26 for your own use, the 5% cash settlement offer is off the
table, and you can apply only for the "free backup and restore
software".

3.  If your purchase was before 2001-03-22, after 2007-09-26, was for an
OEM/grey market unit (as many are), or was from any vendor who was not
on the authorised Seagate dealers and distributors list, or was for
resale or any other purpose besides your own use, then you get nothing.

Terms of the settlement require only that the software option (the
"software benefit") be "valued at least at $40".  


Because my two qualifying HD purchases were both within 2006, I did the
online application for the unspecified "software benefit".  I'm betting
it'll turn out to be something like a strictly-download copy of Maxtor
Backup for Windows.  (Seagate owns Maxtor.)  That way, they can claim it
was "valued at least at $40", and won't actually cost them anything.

(I'm also betting they notify recipients of the download URL only via
mass e-mail, and that it'll probably get blocked for high spamicity.)