Apple Computer faces a U.S. lawsuit, which follows charges in Europe, over tying its iTunes music store to the iPod digital music player. Apple revealed the suit, submitted in July to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week. The suit was filed by a user, Melanie Tucker, and seeks class-action status. It alleges that Apple violates antitrust laws by refusing to allow music bought in its iTunes store to be played on any digital music player besides the iPod. It also charges Apple with not making it clear to customers that music from the iTunes store and the iPod are incompatible with music and devices offered by other companies.
The suit asks that Apple be forbidden to continue to support the exclusive tie-in between iTunes and the iPod and that Apple pay damages to anyone who has bought an iPod or music from the iTunes store after April 28, 2003. In November, Apple filed a motion with the court to dismiss the suit but on Dec. 20 the court denied that request.
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News source: PCWorld
The suit asks that Apple be forbidden to continue to support the exclusive tie-in between iTunes and the iPod and that Apple pay damages to anyone who has bought an iPod or music from the iTunes store after April 28, 2003. In November, Apple filed a motion with the court to dismiss the suit but on Dec. 20 the court denied that request.
View: The full story News source: PCWorld
It will be very interesting to see the outcome of this suit.
I thought iTunes was a store that sells music for deaf people.
I hope Apple loses this as well because that is what would be best for the consumers.
You're also not forced into buying from the iTMS (there are a bunch of alternatives). Why should the iTMS cater to people who fail to realize that its DRM isn't as open as, say, PlaysForSure. Should we sue Microsoft and the Zune Marketplace as well? How about the Xbox 360 marketplace, because its files only play on the 360?
Market share. Market share.
To me that's just nuts, but I'm sure the music industry is partly to blame as they allow their music on iTunes because it's got DRM on it and I'm not sure if there is an 'industry standard' DRM that everyone can use.
I'm not an apple fanboy or anything of the sort, but when individuals and companies sue other companies just out of rampant jealously it is nothing but a waste of time and money, and keep in mind your taxes are paying for the months and months of court time BS lawsuits like this generate.
A major factor in this lawsuit is going to be the fact that Apple does not have a monopoly in the legal sense of the term. Ipod users are not forced to use Itunes, I know many many Ipod users who have never even installed Itunes. They manage their ipods usually with EphPod and they get thier music from other stores that don't have restrictive DRM, their ripped CD collections, etc.
Virgin Mega already tried this same thing in france against Apple in front of the French Competition Council. The council found that there was nothing wrong with iTunes and the apple FairPlay encryption because there were easy workarounds (You can just burn the CD from Itunes and then rip the CD), and the main reason "There is sufficient availability of portable players that support Microsoft's WMA DRM as a viable alternative and choice for consumers."
You hear that. Its not a monopoly because there is competition, it just so happens that most people do not want to use the competitions crappy product. MS is attempting to change this with the Zune and more power to them, but as it stands Apple cannot be sued for being a monopoly in the online music market because there is clear competition, it just is not liked by consumers.
I think there were glitches in Apple's way of communicating this clearly to the consumers.
The service, as conceived, is flawless. Yet is still an utopia 'cause it denies the pre-existence of other players and promotes the iPod/Zune as an unique form of entertainment, when we all know that is not true.
The main purpose of these 'ecosystem models' is to attain a service bound to the device, and not a device independent of the service (freedom of choice). The fact that the concerned record labels are ignoring that if they don't loose the leash a bit more, piracy will keep rising, is certainly sad. Apple and Zune (and many others) did well in bringing a way to 'get that one single hit song you were looking for' to consumers and I think it also made the bands rip their asses off trying to get out with a great album to keep it competitive. The game must open, or the system will collapse. There's rights of ownership on anything one exchanges for money. That's capitalism.
BTW I personally think that we're at the beginning of the end of any 1HitWonders alive.
lol that is BS it is stated several times in itunes that music bought on itunes will only work with MP3 players from Apple.....and it is NOT incompatible with music from other companies! Some like Zune Marketplace will not work but a lot of them do...buying music online from itunes is not the only way to go....
Also I thought those anti trust laws are to prevent people from having a monopoly and getting an unfair advantage..... How is Apple, doing what all the major players in the MP3 market do creating an unfair advantage? They just happen to be the best at it....and there is no law at being good at something
Windows has bundled media player.
Linux distros have bundled media player.
I thought those anti trust laws are to prevent people from having a monopoly and getting an unfair advantage..... How is MS, doing what all the major players in the OS market do creating an unfair advantage? They just happen to be the best at it....and there is no law at being good at something
The problem is that Apple is purposely trying to make money off people buying their music legitimately, when it's supposed to be the right thing to do.
Moral implications aside, the real issue is that your legal music comes with expensive strings attached. The DRM doesn't just identify your music as legal, it specifies that it can only be played on an iPod music device, which you have to pay for.
agreed! i cannot tell you how many times i have had to explain this to people. the ONLY way you can burn a file and re-rip it without quality loss is if you are burning it from a LOSSLESS audio file to begin with. hence the term "lossless" aka "no loss". when you burn an AAC (or mp3) to a CD and then rip it back to mp3. you have compressed the file twice and frankly, it sounds like ass.
so, ogman, please stop spreading this mis-information. thanks!
I've paid around £10, this should be exciting.
Apple won't lose this lawsuit because they don't have a monopoly in the music distributor business and they are really not in the wrong here.
Still, I hope they do lose because that is what would be best for consumers.
I hope it loses.
no one's forcing anyone to use itunes/ipod. you don't like it? buy something else. i'm sick of all these ****ing lawsuits. **** melanie tucker and **** her lawyers and **** her parents and **** all of her unborn children. what an asshole...
haha! nice pun (even if you didn't mean to make one)...
fyi - fairplay is the name of apple's DRM standard
The only people making money from these types of frivolous claims and law suits are the lawyers. Would anyone care to guess who foots the bill?
That is what we should be upset about. Not Apple, not Microsoft, but the lawyers who's fees add probably 5 to 10% to the cost of everything we buy.
Aha....
You can record movie from cinema with your camera.
Then copy it to VHS.
Then import via TV tumer to PC.
Then convert to iPod video format.
Then copy to iPod.
Whoaaaaa!!!!! Mah ePot ist campatible wis teh CINEMAAA!!!111
Dont like it? Dont buy it! Simple as that. Go get the CD, go download it from some other service, rip it from your friend, pirate it... just for christs sake stop bitching about this stupid stuff. You have other options.
Stop wining like little bitches that only want money.
isshould be irrelevant) and wander around with just audible low quality crap playing on their hardware that screams "mug me, I'm rich and stupid".Dont like it? Dont buy it! Simple as that. Go get linux, go download it from some other service, rip it from your friend, pirate it... just for christs sake stop bitching about this stupid stuff. You have other options.
Stop wining like little bitches that only want money.
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