Source: venturebeat.com - Monday, December 01, 2014
Apple will go to trial in Oakland, Calif. tomorrow over a decade-old class action suit alleging that the company unfairly prevented iPod users from using non-Apple music services. Apple, the accusation goes, used a clever upgrade to the DRM software in iTunes to prevent iPod users from downloading music from Real Networks’ music store. Real Networks. DRM. iPod. It’s all a bit of a flashback. Since DRM doesn’t exist in music any more, the result of the trial can have no impact on today’s technology. Sure Apple could lose $350 million if it’s found guilty. That’s nothing to a company on its way to a trillion-dollar valuation. And a loss can’t even be considered a public relations hit, because the Apple of 2004 is so different than the market giant we know today. But some prominent Apple people will show up at the trial, including Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue, who oversees iTunes today. It’s possible those big names will be there to protect the image of the late Steve Jobs. They will have their work cut out for them. “We will present evidence that Apple took action to block its competitors and in the process harmed competition and harmed consumers,” Bonny Sweeney, the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer told The New York Times. Some of that evidence will be Jobs’ emails. Like this beauty from 2003, in which Jobs worries about the effect of a competing music service on the iPod. “We need to make sure that when Music Match lau
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Apple will go to trial in Oakland, Calif. tomorrow over a decade-old class action suit alleging that the company unfairly prevented iPod users from using non-Apple music services. Apple, the accusation goes, used a clever upgrade to the DRM software in iTunes to prevent iPod users from downloading music from Real Networks’ music store. Real Networks. DRM. iPod. It’s all a bit of a flashback. Since DRM doesn’t exist in music any more, the result of the trial can have no impact on today’s technology. Sure Apple could lose $350 million if it’s found guilty. That’s nothing to a company on its way to a trillion-dollar valuation. And a loss can’t even be considered a public relations hit, because the Apple of 2004 is so different than the market giant we know today. But some prominent Apple people will show up at the trial, including Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue, who oversees iTunes today. It’s possible those big names will be there to protect the image of the late Steve Jobs. They will have their work cut out for them. “We will present evidence that Apple took action to block its competitors and in the process harmed competition and harmed consumers,” Bonny Sweeney, the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer told The New York Times. Some of that evidence will be Jobs’ emails. Like this beauty from 2003, in which Jobs worries about the effect of a competing music service on the iPod. “We need to make sure that when Music Match laufrom Top News on RSS Feeds http://ift.tt/1y7hQ1W
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