Techtechnology'Breaking Bad'

Apple Is Ripping Off 'Breaking Bad' Fans: Lawsuit

'Breaking Bad' Fan Sues Apple
By 

Freelance journalist

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A disgruntled fan of AMC's drug-trade drama "Breaking Bad" is suing Apple for selling him only half of the show's fifth season.

Noam Lazebnik says he bought an Apple Season Pass that ended up only covering the season's first eight episodes.

The issue stems from the fact that "Breaking Bad" took a 13-month break midseason. The first eight episodes of Season 5 aired from July to September 2012, while the next eight episodes of the same season only began airing last month.

The break has maddened fans, but been a boon to content providers; the Daily Dot reports that not only Apple but "everyone from Amazon to Sony" is selling the eight-episode chunks as separate seasons -- and charging customers accordingly.

According to Lazebnik's suit, customers paid $13.99 (or $21.99 for HD) for the original "Breaking Bad" Season 5 pass. Then, "Apple deemed the new episodes a 'Final Season' that it did not consider part of Season 5, and expected individuals who had already purchased Season 5 to pony up another $22.99 or $14.99 in order to access it."

Lazebnik hopes Apple won't get away with charging twice for a single season, and the Verge says the odds are in his favor.

He's suing Apple for false advertising under California’s consumer protection laws. (A copy of the filing can be found here.) His grounds for dispute? The wording of Apple's Season Pass, which claims to sell buyers "every episode in that season."

Since May 2012, AMC has advertised the show's final 16 episodes as a single season -- which means, Lazebnik says, he shouldn't have to buy a separate Season Pass from Apple to watch the last eight.

Apple hasn't commented on the suit and didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.

Of course, consumers have other ways to acquire content. According to the International Business Times and Gigaom, the 2013 episodes of Breaking Bad are on track to break the show's own records for piracy.

[H/T Gigaom]

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Before You Go

7 Biggest Steve Jobs Flops
1. Apple III (1981)(01 of07)
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The successor to the very popular Apple II was focused on business users and priced accordingly. Unfortunately, the hardware was unreliable. Apple lost the business market to the IBM PC, launched the same year, and a rapidly expanding market of PC clones. (credit:Flickr:Marcin Wichary)
2. Lisa (1983) (02 of07)
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The first commercially produced computer with a graphical user interface cost $9,995 when it launched. It quickly fell into the shadow of the cheaper Macintosh, launched a year later. (credit:MediaWiki)
NeXT Computer (1989)(03 of07)
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Jobs' venture after being forced out of Apple created a computer that was in many ways ahead of its time, but in the vein of the Apple III and Lisa, it was also too expensive to catch on with mainstream users. (credit:Wikimedia Commons)
3. Puck Mouse (1998)(04 of07)
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The new iMac was the first major product created after Jobs' return to Apple in 1996, and it was a big success, despite its tiny, round mouse. Users couldn't tell which way it was oriented by feel, and it tended to disappear in the cup of the hand, making it hard to use. (credit:MediaWiki)
4. The Cube (2000)(05 of07)
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This small desktop computer was beautifully encased in a cube of clear plastic. It won design awards but was a flop in stores because of its high price. Also, it didn't really offer any functional benefits over other Macs. Apple's designs are iconic, but people aren't usually willing to pay a premium for design alone. The Cube idea lives on in the Mac Mini, a more successful but less eye-catching small Mac. (credit:MediaWiki)
5. iTunes phone (2005) (06 of07)
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It's easy to forget that the iPhone wasn't Apple's first venture into the cellphone business. It formed a partnership with Motorola Inc. to launch the ROKR in late 2005. As a phone, it was decent if unexciting, but as a music player, it fell far short of the iPod. It could only hold 100 songs, and transferring them from the computer was a slow process. It was also criticized for not allowing users to download music over the cellular network, a limitation that also applied to the first iPhone. Some even called the ROKR "the iPhone." (credit:MediaWiki)
6. Apple TV (2007) (07 of07)
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Apple's foray into the living room was an uncharacteristically half-hearted effort - Jobs later referred to the Apple TV as a "hobby." It was a small box that connected to a TV and to a Mac in the home. A tiny remote allowed the owner to play music and movies from the PC on the TV. It was expensive, at $249, and complicated to set up and use. Movies purchased from iTunes were low resolution and looked blurry on HDTV sets. In 2010, Apple introduced a much improved, cheaper Apple TV designed to connect directly to the Internet. (credit:Getty)
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