Did you know that if you are a citizen of the UK and you have purchased anything on Valve's Steam platform, you are probably right at this moment suing Valve?
Oh, you didn't know that? This is news to you? Nobody informed you or asked you?
Well, turns out that UK laws are absolutely insane. Indeed, there's an ongoing class action lawsuit against Valve, and you are likely one of the litigants even though nobody asked you, or even told you about it.
Is this, once again, the UK government being the tyrants that they have demonstrated again and again to be?
Surprisingly, no. It's not the UK government. And this is what actually makes it ten times crazier: It's an individual person, named Vicki Shotbolt, who all by herself, as an individual person, has dragged you into a lawsuit against Valve, without asking you, without informing you, without anybody telling you.
You can "opt out" of the lawsuit, because nobody has told you, you are likely not even know you need to. Or know how to.
Yes, apparently the UK law allows this. And yes, it's exactly as insane as it sounds.
Do you know what's even crazier? Valve issued a motion to dismiss due to how completely ridiculous this is, and can you guess what an UK judge decided? You guessed it right: He rejected the motion to dismiss and allowed the lawsuit to go forward.
And what would you get if she were to win the lawsuit?
About 20 to 30 pounds. That's it. That's what you have to gain, even if you win. That's less than half the price of a new triple-A game.
And what do you have to lose? Very likely most of the benefits that Steam provides you, as this could well either destroy Steam completely, or at least cripple it severely.
You are, without even knowing, participant in a quest to destroy Steam for the measly sum of 20-30 pounds, and nobody asked you, or even told you about it.
And do you know what's the funniest thing about it? You will actually not get that 20-30 pounds!
Why? Because getting the money is an "opt-in" process. And because the vast majority of people don't even know about this, they won't even be signing up for that measly sum.
So that's right: Being named in the lawsuit is not an "opt-in" system, but getting the compensation is.
And the scary thing is that there are so many people named in the lawsuit, about 14 million of them, that even if ten million of them opt out of it, it won't help much. It's very likely that only an extremely small fraction of people will opt out of this insanity that they have been dragged into without their knowledge, for the mere reason that they don't know anything about it.
In other words, it doesn't matter how many campaigns are created to raise awareness of this, only a small fraction of the people involved will ever heard of it, and even a smaller amount will actually go and opt out. Millions and millions of UK citizens have been dragged into this without their permission, and don't know anything about it.
It's just insane.
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