Liz Gannes

Recent Posts by Liz Gannes

Law Firm Won’t Pursue SuperPoke Pets Shutdown Class Action Suit Against Google

As much as avid users of Slide’s SuperPoke Pets yelled, begged and left angry blog comments, a law firm that had been exploring a class action lawsuit over Google’s shutdown of their much-loved game has declined to take on the case.

Chicago-based class action specialist Freed & Weiss — which had been collecting complaints from SuperPoke Pets users upset about the loss of their virtual goods and carefully cared-for online pets — notified the users today that it thought its chances of winning were slim.

That’s because, though players invested much money in the game and had been previously assured that it wouldn’t shut down, Slide and Google’s terms of service seem to cover their actions. Plus, after all the outcry, Google agreed to offer a standalone app called SPP Lite that allows users to keep their pets alive with some limited functionality.

“We have appreciated hearing from many of you and, while this is unfair and unjust, there are just some situations where there is not a likelihood of recovery in the U.S. Court system and we have found that to be the case here,” Freed & Weiss said.

Another law firm, Edelson McGuire, appears to still be collecting complaints from SuperPoke Pets users.

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik