Datel Sues Microsoft over "downgrade"

In a press release today, the San Francisco based lawfirm Howard Rice Neverosvki et al, revealed that they will be representing Datel in an anti-trust lawsuit brought against Microsoft…

The November 17th Dashboard Update that added Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm functionality to the Xbox 360 system also disabled the use of unauthorized 3rd Party memory units.  Datel’s Max Memory Card (DMMC) is the only 3rd Party memory unit available for the Xbox 360.

There was one sentence in today’s press release that stood out to me and I have underlined it here:

Howard Rice Director Marty Glick, the senior attorney representing Datel in the lawsuit, said, “Microsoft has taken steps to render inoperable the competing Datel memory card for no visible purpose other than to have that market entirely to themselves. They accomplished their recent update by making a system change that will not recognize or allow operation of a memory card with greater capacity than their own. We believe that with the power Microsoft enjoys in the market for Xbox accessories this conduct is unlawful.”
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Antitrust law protects the right of consumers to choose. Just as a car manufacturer can’t require a buyer to purchase tires for the life of the car from the manufacturer, Microsoft cannot force consumers to buy accessories only from it. Free competition in the marketplace allows consumers the most choices at the best prices. Datel believes that its antitrust lawsuit will restore competition and permit consumers to enjoy the benefits of their Max Memory cards, as well as the many other innovative products Datel has in the pipeline.

It appears Microsoft is detecting and blocking the cards based on storage capacity. This makes me wonder if the Max Memory Card will still work if you were to swap the included 2GB or 4GB card for a smaller, 512MB or less microSD card?

Full Press Release from Howard Rice

Full Text of Datel’s Complaint

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