Apple cleared in iPod antitrust suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A US jury on Tuesday cleared Apple of abusing its dominant market position in an antitrust case over online music for the iPod.

The class-action antitrust case in California federal court featured dramatic videotaped testimony recorded by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs before he died in 2011.

The $350-million lawsuit accused the tech giant of illegally forcing iPod users to purchase their music on its iTunes service.

The suit said iPod buyers between 2006 and 2009 were blocked from buying music from other vendors, advancing Apple’s dominant position on music downloads.

But the jury ruled otherwise.

“We thank the jury for their service and we applaud their verdict,” Apple said in a statement.

“We created iPod and iTunes to give our customers the world’s best way to listen to music. Every time we’ve updated those products — and every Apple product over the years — we’ve done it to make the user experience even better.”

Jobs’ testimony from a few months before his death in October 2011 was played at the hearing Friday.

In excerpts published by online news site “The Verge,” he said that Apple was “very concerned” about retaliatory measures that could be taken by record companies if songs purchased in iTunes and downloaded to an iPod were then copied onto somebody else’s computer.

“We went to great pains to make sure that people couldn’t hack into our digital rights management system because if they could, we would get nasty emails from the labels threatening us that they were going to yank the license,” Jobs said.

He argued that “lots of hackers” were trying to break into the system, and as a result, Apple had to be constantly “revving the iTunes and iPod software, closing any holes that might be in it, or any problems it might have.”

If these changes meant that competitors became locked out, then they were only “collateral damage,” he said.

Plaintiffs in the class-action suit argued that the repeat changes prevented other online music stores — and potentially less expensive ones at that — from adapting their own systems fast enough for their music to be used on the iPod.

This, they said, meant iPod owners had to make purchases on iTunes.

Apple has remained a powerful player in online music, but in 2009 dropped its “digital rights management” that limited how users could copy or transfer songs.

source: interaksyon.com

Apple helps iTunes users delete free U2 album

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple on Monday began helping people boot U2 off their iTunes accounts after a cacophony of complaints about not wanting the automatically downloaded free album by the Irish rock band.

U2 performed at the close of an Apple event last week marked by the unveiling of new large-screen iPhones, a smartwatch from the California company, and word that free copies of the band’s new “Songs of Innocence” album were instantly delivered to the more than half-billion iTunes accounts around the world.

The musical gift hit a sour note for iTunes users to took to social media to complain about precious iPhone storage space being taken up by a digital album they didn’t want and couldn’t figure out how to get rid of.

“If you would like U2′s Songs of Innocence’ removed from your iTunes music library and iTunes purchases, you can choose to have it removed,” Apple said at a freshly launched SOI Removal web page that let people delete the album with a click of an on-screen icon.

Apple warned that once “Songs of Innocence” was removed, it could not be gotten back free of charge.

“I managed to delete U2 off my iPhone. It’s a beautiful day,” one Twitter user said in a message playing off a verse from one of the band’s hit songs.

The digital album was made available free to anyone who has, or opens, an iTunes account by October 13.

U2 used the Apple event stage at a performing arts center near the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Macintosh computer maker’s headquarters in the city of Cupertino to release their new album.

U2 frontman Bono described the album, the band’s first since “No Line on the Horizon” in 2009, as deeply personal and called the release “instant gratification.”

U2 — who released some of the most acclaimed albums in the 1980s including “The Joshua Tree” and “Rattle and Hum” — could have expected major sales for a new album.

While Apple did not disclose financial arrangements for the free release, U2 has collaborated for years on products with the company.

source: interaksyon.com