“A federal judge was asked by Apple Inc. to dismiss a consumer antitrust lawsuit claiming the company limited choice by linking iPod music downloading to its iTunes music store,” Pamela MacLean and Karen Gullo report for Bloomberg.
“Robert Mittelstaedt, an attorney for the Cupertino, California-based company, yesterday told U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose, California, that blocking iPod music downloads that used competitors’ software was intended to improve downloading quality for iTunes customers,” MacLean and Gullo report. “Changes that Apple made in 2004, just days after Internet music software company RealNetworks Inc. announced a technology allowing songs from its online store to be played on iPods, weren’t anticompetitive, he said. ‘Apple’s view is that iPods work better when consumers use the iTunes jukebox rather than third party software that can cause corruption or other problems,’ Mittelstaedt said at a hearing.”
MacLean and Gullo report, “By March 2009, digital music files offered on iTunes were sold without proprietary software, according to court records. Apple co-founder and chief executive officer Steve Jobs, ordered by a separate judge to answer questions in the case, met with plaintiff attorneys for a deposition on April 12, Bonny Sweeney [a lawyer representing iTunes customers who sued] said yesterday. She declined to comment further.”
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