“Apple Inc.’s changes to iTunes in 2006 were like a new-and-improved candy bar that’s bigger, has more chocolate and contains a toxic preservative making it lethal, a consumer lawyer said in a bid to convince a jury the iPod maker wanted to kill competition and not upgrade its music service,” Karen Gullo reports for Bloomberg.
“Patrick Coughlin, an attorney for consumers, made his final pitch [on Monday] in federal court in Oakland, California, citing e-mails from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs that urged his staff to leverage iTunes dominance in digital music and testimony by a former company engineer who he said contradicted Apple’s claim that the software changes were aimed at boosting security,” Gullo reports. “Jurors began deliberations today over whether the evidence at trial showed that Apple’s changes to iTunes were genuine product enhancements.”
“If they vote yes, Cupertino-California-based Apple will defeat an antitrust case with the potential for $1 billion in damages. A company can’t be held liable for thwarting competition if it made product changes that are genuine improvements, even if the tweaks hurt competitors, the jury was instructed today. If jurors vote no, they will then be asked to decide whether Apple violated antitrust laws,” Gullo reports. “Bill Isaacson, Apple’s lawyer, told jurors today the iTunes modifications were enhancements and that the alleged harm to iPod users was concocted by the consumer lawyers. Those attorneys didn’t produce a single iPod user to testify about songs lost after they’d been downloaded from RealNetworks, Isaacson said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Pfft.
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