iTunes lawsuit

[noddin0ff]

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/02/HNapplelawsuit_1.html
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/01/is_apple_the_ne.html

While I personally think this is a stupid lawsuit. It could be interesting. Someone is suing Apple for not making it clear that songs sold at the iTunes store only work on the iPod. It could become class action. To me it's like suing people who press vinyl records for not making products that play on CD players...

[Dusty Chalk]

Hmm...not sure how I feel about this -- on the one hand, it's just a file, there's no reason it should be tied to the iPod, which means they volitionally put the tie in there. Whether or not putting that tie in there breaks anti-trust laws I'll leave up to the lawyers to decide, as in my mind, it cuts it kind of close -- I think of iTunes as something to do with Apple's iPod, but I thought you could use iTunes without an iPod...?

Strictly speaking, since they made both products, that in itself should not violate anti-trust laws (but I'm no lawyer, so don't quote me on any of this); anti-trust laws come into play when a company takes advantage of its dominating market share to perpetuate even more of an advantage on that market. I'm not sure they have enough of a market share -- in iTunes, the software music delivery market, not in iPod -- to violate anything.

[noddin0ff]

You can use iTunes and the iPod with out using the iTunes Store with several filetype inclucing the non-DRM WAV, AIFF, and MP3 formats. I don't use the store. But all my music is managed in iTunes and I play it on an iPod.

BUT, if you purchase something from the iTunes store it will only play with iTunes or with an iPod. And, iTunes will only sync with iPods.