“With their $1 billion lawsuit against Apple Inc. on thin ice, consumer attorneys found their new lead client — an amateur skater who holds an eight-year grudge against the iPod maker for making it a hassle to listen to the tango and Hungarian music she loves,” Karen Gullo and Robert Burnson report for Bloomberg.
“The other thing Barbara Ragan Bennett, 65, brings to the case is her iPod Nano bought in 2006. That’s the most important credential to serve as lead plaintiff on behalf of 8 million consumers in a case alleging that Apple tried to maintain a monopoly on digital music from 2006 to 2009,” Gullo and Burnson report. “The two previous lead plaintiffs were taken off the case after Apple questioned whether their iPod purchases qualified them to be representatives in the class-action case.”
“On the stand with the jury absent, Bennett described herself yesterday as a consultant and ice dancer from Marshfield, Massachusetts. She said she e-mailed the judge to volunteer herself as class representative for the case after reading that the lead plaintiffs had been withdrawn,” Gullo and Burnson report. “She said that after buying her Nano in 2006, she couldn’t always find the “rare music” she enjoys, including tango and Hungarian, for sale on iTunes. As a result, she had to buy CDs of the music and copy it onto her laptop before syncing with her Nano, she said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: At this point, Apple’s attorneys have to be waiting for the “judge” to exclaim, “Smile! You’re on ‘Candid Camera.'”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bob” for the heads up.]
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