Court may be a familiar locale to America Online, and it's back in potential legal trouble once again - this time, by way of a lawsuit accusing it, virtually, of holding computer users cyberhostage.
The class action suit accuses AOL of releasing AOL 5.0 knowing it could cause major changes in operating systems, enough to make it unstable or even unusable, Wired says. The suit also says the software stops AOL customers from connecting to competing Internet service providers.
Seattle attorney Steve Berman tells Wired the suit was filed on behalf of all Washington state AOL users who have installed 5.0. "This was a brazen attempt by AOL to hold these customers hostage as long as they wanted to connect to the Internet," he says in a formal statement.
Wired says there was no immediate reaction from AOL.
