[citation][nom]willard[/nom]Yeah, because a judge is totally going to allow $15B in damages. Lawyers are getting bolder and farther out of touch with reality by the minute.I propose a new law. If you file a suit and claim stupidly high damages, you are legally required to pay the difference in the resulting judgement and what you asked for. Should stop these money grubbing shitbags from asking for ludicrous amounts of money.[/citation]
Here's the thing; it's not an arbitrary number (from the article). From a legal bill (US Wiretap Act) the compensation amount is $10,000 per user for privacy violations. Facebook's downfall (were this case to go all the way) would be its popularity. Fifteen billion divided by 10,000 is 1.5 million.
So the number itself is legally the correct amount of compensation. Now if it goes all the way to trial and the class action suit is accepted, Facebook may find a way to lower the sum. But if they have the means, they might not have a choice.