Steve Jobs ordered to provide antitrust deposition

iPod

There are some days when it feels like Steve Jobs is the only person who works at Apple, judging by the number of times his name is cited when anyone has a complaint against the company.

Now, a US judge has ordered him to answer questions relating to monopolistic behavior over the iPod and the iTunes Store back in 2004. Then, Apple made changes to the iPod software which disrupted RealNetwork's Harmony software, designed to allow songs purchased from the RealNetworks online store to be transferred to the iPod. Thomas Slattery, who filed the class action suit against Apple in 2005, said this violated antitrust and unfair competition laws.

At worst, lawyers can force Steve Jobs to spend two hours answering questions for a deposition on the matter, although Apple lawyers are pushing to have the whole case dismissed next month -- parts of it have already been dismissed. Today, you can put music downloaded or ripped from just about anywhere on your iPod, iPhone or iPad via iTunes, and music tracks sold in the iTunes Store no longer come with DRM.

"The court finds that Jobs has unique, non-repetitive, firsthand knowledge about the issues at the center of the dispute over RealNetworks software," said magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd in San Jose, California. Like I said, some days Steve Jobs is the only person who's ever worked at Apple.

[Via Macstories]

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Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-22/apple-s-jobs-must-a…

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There are some days when it feels like Steve Jobs is the only person who works at Apple, judging by the number of times his name is...

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macserv

I remember this story. What Real did was a hack, along the same lines as what Palm did to make PrÄ“ syncing work in iTunes, but even worse. Specifically, Harmony faked the FairPlay DRM scheme Apple used to use on its music, making iTunes think Harmony tracks were iTunes tracks. Even if Real had applied the FairPlay DRM correctly, they had no license to do so.

It wasn't that their content wasn't allowed on the device, it was the way they went about getting it there. They exploited a mechanism which Apple had every right to protect and control. It's their device, and their software, and any dissatisfied user was free to choose from myriad other devices which may or may not support Harmony in the way Real wanted. This is not antitrust. Yet again, nothing to see here.

Magistrate Lloyd, Your Honor, feel free to substitute this for Steve's deposition and spare us all a whole bunch of drama. I'm sure you, like Steve, have far better things to doâ€” persecuting people who have actually broken the law, perhaps? In addition, please consider giving back the tax dollars you've wasted on this wild goose chase.

March 24 2011 at 3:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Eideard

Most judges are mediocre lawyers at best. First and foremost they are politicians. A factor that contributes to the decline in the standards and standing of American jurisprudence more than most.

March 23 2011 at 9:13 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike

"There are some days when it feels like Steve Jobs is the only person who works at Apple" I see this all the time, people around the web, complaining about Steve Jobs when they disagree with something Apple has done (or they just want to bash Apple in general). You don't see anyone putting all blame on Page or Ballmer (though in the latter case people should...).

March 23 2011 at 8:18 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mack

Bad headline - he absolutely hasn't been ordered to appear in court.

"The deposition which will take place on an unknown date will last no more than two-hours and will ***take place outside of a court***; he will be questioned on Apple allegedly changing software to prevent digital music files engineered by RealNetworks from playing on an iPod." - World of Apple

March 23 2011 at 7:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply