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El Reg reports
Apple has prevailed in an almost decade-long antitrust legal battle over the way its iPod gadgets handled music not obtained through iTunes.
A federal jury in Oakland, California, took just four hours to clear the iThings maker of wrongdoing--and tossed out calls for a $351[M] compensation package for eight million owners of late-2000s iPods. That figure could have been tripled if the iPhone giant had lost its fight.
Apple was accused in a class-action lawsuit of designing its software to remove music and other files from iPods that weren't purchased or ripped via iTunes--but the eight-person jury decided that mechanism was a legit feature.
[...]It was argued that Apple had deliberately set up iTunes to report iPods as damaged if they stored music that, essentially, wasn't sanctioned by Apple: if alien files were found by the software, users were told to restore their devices to factory settings, effectively wiping songs not purchased from or ripped from CD by iTunes.
Apple countered that it was only preventing iPods from being hacked or damaged by third-party data. The company said the protections were implemented to prevent people from listening to pirated music--a claim the jury upheld.
Related:
Apple Deleted Rivals' Songs from Users' iPods - Class-Action Suit
Apple's Intentional iPod Lock-in Efforts - Engineer Testifies in Court
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday December 18 2014, @04:09AM
If you've waited this long to put Apple on that list you haven't been paying attention. They're far worse and more dangerous than Sony *ever* was, and they've been that way for about seven years.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday December 18 2014, @06:11AM
I wonder how many of the Jury had iPhones in their pockets.
This Jury would let Apple off the hook for deleting their music to protect them from the risk of listening (shiver) Pirated Music.
What's next, jurys letting car thieves off, with thanks, for protecting us from hurting ourselves in our own vehicles?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.