As soon as Pete Townshend weighed in on the subject, we knew it was coming: a Louisiana man has sued Apple, not for an iPod actually damaging his hearing, but because they potentially could. The story’s over at Consumer Affairs:

A Louisiana man has filed a lawsuit against Apple Computer, claiming its iPods are too loud and could damage his hearing. The suit seeks class action status but does not seek specific damages.

Lawyers for John Kiel Patterson charge the mp3 players are “inherently defective” in design and do not provide sufficient warning to consumers that the volume could result in hearing loss. The suit says the iPod can produce sounds at more than 115 decibels, which it says can damage hearing if exposed to as little as a half minute per day.

Well, a vacuum cleaner could potentially injure you too if you were to press it’s mouth up against your scrotum for as little as half a second per day. It doesn’t mean you have a successful lawsuit on your hands. We love the weaselly comment from this guy’s huckster lawyer, too, in which he claims that the point of the lawsuit isn’t to win, but to “dramatize the potential of the iPod to cause permanent damage to millions of consumers who have and who will purchase the product.” Sleazy. But fun!

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