A federal judge has ruled in Apple’s favor in a lawsuit brought by the developers of Musi, a popular free music streaming app that pulled songs from YouTube. The decision upholds Apple’s removal of the app from the App Store in 2024 and affirms the company’s broad authority under its Developer Program License Agreement.
Jon Brodkin for Ars Technica:
Musi built a streaming service without striking its own deals with copyright holders. It did so by playing music from YouTube, writing in its 2024 lawsuit against Apple that “the Musi app plays or displays content based on the user’s own interactions with YouTube and enhances the user experience via Musi’s proprietary technology.” Musi’s app displayed its own ads but let users remove them for a one-time fee of $5.99.
Musi claimed it complied with YouTube’s terms, but Apple removed it from the App Store in September 2024. Musi does not offer an Android app. Musi alleged that Apple delisted its app based on “unsubstantiated” intellectual property claims from YouTube and that Apple violated its own Developer Program License Agreement (DPLA) by delisting the app.
Musi was handed a resounding defeat yesterday in two rulings from U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee in the Northern District of California. Lee found that Apple can remove apps “with or without cause,” as stipulated in the developer agreement… Lee granted Apple’s motion to dismiss the complaint. She ordered it to be dismissed with prejudice and without leave to amend.
MacDailyNews Take: Another win for Apple’s ironclad control of the App Store! This decisive ruling not only reinforces Apple’s broad discretion over its ecosystem but also serves as a stark warning to any future developers thinking they can successfully challenge App Store removals. Apple’s platform, Apple’s rules.
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A win for Apple’s legal team?
I guess the old adage is true, “Even a blind squirrel can find a nut every once in a while.”
Apple has to carry out the trash from time to time, even dead squirrels.
Get rid of them I say.