Apple did not intentionally delete non-iTunes songs from iPods, jury rules
A jury ruled in favor of Apple Tuesday in the class-action lawsuit that found lawyers accusing the company of deleting non-iTunes tracks off users’ iPods.
The eight-person jury came to a unanimous decision, following just three hours of deliberation, after it took plaintiffs nearly 10 years to bring the lawsuit to trial. They were seeking $350 million in damages, which could’ve tripled under antitrust laws.
The New York Times reports: “The lawsuit involved iPods sold from September 2006 to March 2009 that were able to play only songs sold in the iTunes Store or those downloaded from CDs — not music from some competing stores. Apple was accused of violating antitrust law by using a copyright management system to lock people into buying iPods rather than cheaper alternatives.”
Apple released a statement after the verdict. “We created iPod and iTunes to give our customers the world’s best way to listen to music,” an Apple spokesperson said. “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.”
According to the Times, lawyers found out that two of the plaintiffs didn’t even own iPods from the right time period. Apple’s lead lawyer said, “There’s not one piece of evidence of a single individual who lost a single song, not even a complaint about it. This is all made up at this point.”
Read more via the Times.
