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Are you an owner of an original Rock Band drum kit? Has your pedal, like so many others, snapped in half under reasonable use? Then you may soon be entitled to a paltry monetary award, if Kansas resident Monte Morgan has his way. As GameCyte reports (via Edge-Online), Morgan has filed a class action lawsuit against Harmonix, MTV Games, Electronic Arts, and Viacom over the faulty drum pedals, alleging that they were "designed to deliberately cheat large numbers of consumers out of individually small sums of money."

According to the legal complaint (PDF document), Morgan argues that the defective drum pedals are prone to breaking under normal use, and consumers are therefore "unable to use the Rock Band drum kit or play the Rock Band game in the manner marketed and advertised by Defendants, thus depriving them of the value and enjoyment of their purchases." But more interestingly, the complaint goes on to accuse Harmonix of a scheme to cheat Rock Band 1 customers by improving the pedal with Rock Band 2, and ending the warranty for the Rock Band 1 pedals upon 2's release.

When complaints over the broken drum pedals originally popped up after Rock Band's release, Harmonix extended the warranty for the drum pedals beyond the standard 60-day limit. But this extended warranty came to an end on October 1 of this year... right around the release of Rock Band 2, which featured a drum pedal that was advertised as being "improved" with reinforcement from a metal plate. Morgan argues this was a deliberate attempt to compel those who still owned a broken Rock Band 1 pedal to purchase Rock Band 2, rather than being able to have their drum pedal fixed through the extended warranty.