“An unhappy iTunes online music store customer is suing Apple Computer Inc., alleging the company broke antitrust laws by only allowing iTunes to work with its own music player, the iPod, freezing out competitors, court filings showed. Apple, which opened its online music store in April 2003 after introducing the iPod in October 2001, uses technology to ensure each digital song bought from its store only plays on the iPod,” Duncan Martell reports for Reuters.
“The suit was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court in San Jose. One antitrust expert called it a long shot, but Californian Thomas Slattery is hoping for unspecified damages for being ‘forced’ to buy an iPod, one of the most successful electronics products in years,” Martell reports. “‘Apple has unlawfully bundled, tied, and/or leveraged its monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players, and vice-versa,’ the suit charged. Slattery called himself an iTunes customer who ‘was also forced to purchase an Apple iPod’ if he wanted to take his music with him to listen to.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A joke. Too many other online music stores and portable digital music players are available – most of them claiming to be “iPod Killers” and/or “iTunes Killers.” It’s not Apple’s fault that none of them can make a compelling, original player or a decent music store. This case ought to be thrown out of court posthaste.
If Microsoft wasn’t a monoply apple does not need to worry.
He’s expecting to win? I really don’t see that being the case, if he wanted music legally and to take with him – but didn’t want an iPod (that right there proves this guy might not be the smartest, atleast in my eyes) he could have easily went out and bough one of those Rio things and stiched a PlaysForSure logo on his face as he fired up MediaPlayer 10 and bought from MSN Music. This really should be thrown out – quick, it’s just stupid.
So I guess Ballmer DID buy an iPod.
This is too funny. As well as the proprietary ACC format from the iTunes store, my iPod also plays MP3’s and WAVE files.
How about yours?
And….darn it…. that Gillette Mach III razor I bought only takes Gillette blades! I think I’ll sue! I wanted to use the blades from my wife’s Schick Ladies’ Razor.
I’ll sue, I tell ya!
How about burning a CD to take with him?
So Rob Glaser is shoppping at the iTMS!
LOL Glick
Why? Someone just trying to get a quick buck, nothing more. He can’t be pissed that they are not great products. He could also burn the music, chosen another store and all the different players. This can’t stand water.
Two things here:
1. Who is Thomas Slattery, and how long has he been an employee of whatever Microsoft-funded ‘grass-roots’ organization he presumably works for? It is simply inconceivable that a real person with no ulterior motive would be mad enough about buying an iPod to sue Apple. This is simply meant to produce publicity, which it is doing.
2. His claim is completely unconvincing, since he can burn a CD and reimport his music in whatever format he likes. There will be some loss of quality, but there is some loss of quality in recording your LPs onto cassette, too–for that matter, there’s some loss of quality in using 128 kpbs AACs at all. And reimporting your songs is certainly easier than filing a lawsuit!
Which confirms, again, how transparently this is about getting publicity for filing a lawsuit to illustrate how Apple is “restricting customers’ choices” (the officially-proclaimed Microsoft line), rather than about any aggrieved, real-life customer.
$50 says it’s paul thurrott who filed the complaint
“Why? Someone just trying to get a quick buck, nothing more.”
Yes, the unconscionable lawyer who persuaded him that he did in fact have a case. When the judge tosses the lawsuit as frivolous, the shark still has to get his pound of flesh.
Maybe he should do his homework before purchasing anything. Im suing Sony for not allowing me to use my XBox games in the playstation. Or maybe MS for not opening my AppleWorks docs in Word. How about Apple for limiting my choice to Apple hardware only after purchasing OS X.
just silly
How about suing the record companies for forcing DRM on electronic music sales and overcharging and pushing subscription services then blaming P2P for killing the music industry?
glick7, you are wise. the razor-blade analogy i’ve heard before, but still. brilliant and dead on.
Bwahahahahaha ! This guy is an idiot
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“Californian Thomas Slattery is hoping for unspecified damages for being ‘forced’ to buy an iPod”
Ah.. and I suppose one’s stupidity might “force” them to bring about this frivelous lawsuit.
Sooner or later Apple will have to either open up or license their DRM. I believe that is a good thing. Choice is good. It will drive the iPod price down and/or grow more features.
Think about it – if the rumored xMac is indeed $500, it’s less than or the same as some iPod models. Ahhh, the magic of margins and choice…
Let’s see here. Cost of filing a lawsuit against Apple: few hundred dollars in attorney fees. “Unspecified damages” rewarded IF he wins: probably $249 (price of an iPod Mini, so he will have one for free). So it’ll cost this guy more to sue Apple than what his winnings would cover. It’s definitely Rob Glaser.
I am going to sue Chevrolet because I can only drive my car if I buy Gasoline! Why cant it run on dirt?!?!
This idiot has no chance of winning, any company is more than welcome to sell standard music file formats like MP3, they just choose not to. He should be suing those companies for not making content compatible with the most popular music player on earth.
Other businesses are free to develop their own music platform. They have no case.
Why doesn’t he just tape it and play it on his walkman? Or better yet, just burn his tunes to cd and play it on a portable cd player? Tell him to quit his bitching! He’s gonna lose. Anyone that has the time to file a lawsuit, has the time to convert mp3 tracks to a playable format for thier iPod!
Viridian,
I don’t know about where you’re from, but where I live most plaintiffs’ attorneys couldn’t afford to take on too many “frivolous” cases, otherwise they’d be bankrupt within a year. And I don’t know of any state that allows attorneys to directly solicit business from individuals; the client has to make the first contact, and the client has to actually sign an employment agreement with the attorney (in order to hire the attorney) before anything can be filed on the plaintiff’s behalf.
The majority of the time, attorneys for the plaintiff work on a contingency basis, meaning that they only get their fee and recoup their expenses if they win. This ‘pound of flesh’ you refer to may be apt for defense, probate, entertainment and corporate attorneys (win or lose, they still get paid), but since the majority of civil cases filed by individuals are done by attorneys gambling with their own upront money, the plaintiffs’ attorney filing such a case would have to be either foolish or brave to risk his own cash and reputation on a matter that, by any reasonable standard, obviously has no merit.
Of course, that’s not to say that this Slattery guy didn’t shop his case around until he found someone dumb,depraved or desperate enough to take on such a dog of a case… And he does live in California, where they do allow aspiring lawyers to sit for the Bar exam after only studying law through non-accredited correspondence schools… So who knows what kind of attorney Slattery might be dealing with here!!! But to infer that all attorneys are soulless scum whose primary intent is taking undeserved and unearned money from the pockets of others is patently ridiculous and an offensive cliche… that is as boorish as me saying that all Brits need to buy some soap and toothpaste next time they get their dole, instead of blowing it on booze and women of loose virtue. After all, not every town in the UK has women of loose virtue…
(p.s. I don’t really believe that there are any British whom are philandering, unemployed alcoholics with hygiene issues. I’m sure there are some out there, but all of the UK citizens I have ever met are wonderful people. I realize that trading one offensive cliche for another is not the way to resolve negative prejudice, but I’m going to use an affirmative defense tactic honed on the playground — “but he started it”. Oh, and before you ask, no, I am not an attorney, just a person who is tired of everyone blaming all of the problems of the world on lawyers, instead of owning up to their own failures and shortcomings anymore. It’s just not funny to pin the blame on lawyers anymore…)
Are there not two players which will work with iTMS? The player from Apple, and the player from Hewlett Packard.
Case Dismissed!
Here Here!!! Give me a pint! And an mp3 player! lol, my magic word is “english”
“I am going to sue Chevrolet because I can only drive my car if I buy Gasoline! Why cant it run on dirt?!?”
Hey Special Ed, I can’t run my diesel peugeot on unleaded – going to help me sue Peugeot?