Itunes user sues Apple over iPod
Discussion
This will make you 
Unbelievable.
I wonder what car he drives, petrol maybe. But there are diesel pumps too and surely that's victimising him as he can't use them. He'd better sue the diesel suppliers as well. I bet he's the type who would try to update his Paintshop Proffesional with some Adobe Photoshop plugins and wonder why they don't work then sue them for cornering the markeplace.
I hope Mr Thomas Slattery is countersued for wasting the courts time, I might just sue him myself for wasting my time in typing this counter-rage posting on here.
BBC said:
A user of Apple's iTunes music service is suing the firm saying it is unfair he can only use an iPod to play songs.
He says Apple is breaking anti-competition laws in refusing to let other music players work with the site.
Apple, which opened its online store in 2003 after launching the iPod in 2001, uses technology to ensure each song bought only plays on the iPod.
Californian Thomas Slattery filed the suit in the US District Court inSan
Jose and is seeking damages.
Key
"Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice," the lawsuit states.
The key to such a lawsuit would be convincing a court that a single brand like iTunes is a market in itself separate from the rest of the online music market, according to Ernest Gellhorn, an anti-trust law professor at George Mason University.
"As a practical matter, the lower courts have been highly sceptical of such claims," Prof Gellhorn said.
Apple has sold more than six million iPods since the gadget was launched and has an 87% share of the market for portable digital music players, market research firm NPD Group has reported.
'Unlawfully bundled'
More than 200 million songs have been sold by the iTunes music store since it was launched.
"Apple has unlawfully bundled, tied, and/or leveraged itsmonopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digitalmusic recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players, and vice-versa," the lawsuit said.
Mr Slattery called himself an iTunes customer who "was also forced to purchase an Apple iPod" if he wanted to take his music with him to listen to.
A spokesman for Apple declined to comment.
Apple's online music store uses a different format for songs than Napster, Musicmatch, RealPlayer and others.
Rivals use the MP3 format or Microsoft's WMA format - or in the case of Real its own AAC format - while Apple uses AAC with its own copy protection, which it says helps thwart piracy.
The WMA format also includes so-called Digital Rights Management which is used to block piracy.
Unbelievable.
I wonder what car he drives, petrol maybe. But there are diesel pumps too and surely that's victimising him as he can't use them. He'd better sue the diesel suppliers as well. I bet he's the type who would try to update his Paintshop Proffesional with some Adobe Photoshop plugins and wonder why they don't work then sue them for cornering the markeplace.
I hope Mr Thomas Slattery is countersued for wasting the courts time, I might just sue him myself for wasting my time in typing this counter-rage posting on here.
Sorry but I think he has a point.
Didnt even know this to be the case, I thought that music downloaded from iTunes was mp3.
You have paid for the song, why shouldnt you be allowed to listen to it on another device?
How would you feel if you bought a CD by a Sony recording artist but were only allowed to play it on a Sony CD player?
>> Edited by b17nns on Wednesday 12th January 15:48
Didnt even know this to be the case, I thought that music downloaded from iTunes was mp3.
You have paid for the song, why shouldnt you be allowed to listen to it on another device?
How would you feel if you bought a CD by a Sony recording artist but were only allowed to play it on a Sony CD player?
>> Edited by b17nns on Wednesday 12th January 15:48
FourWheelDrift said:
But these are tunes sold/designed for the iPod. You can get MP3's elsewhere on the internet from many different sources. If you chose iTunes that need an IPod to play them then you can't really complain or sue them.
I hate this suing thing anyway.
I thought iTunes was for MP3 and Apple Lossless??
iTunes Apple acquired from someone IIRC.
b17nns said:
You have paid for the song, why shouldnt you be allowed to listen to it on another device?
That's like saying "I bought a PS2 game, why doesn't it play on my X-Box, it's just another games player"
Sorry....but if you buy something specifically designed for a particular tool I wouldn't expect it to work on a different thing altogether. ITunes aren't MP3's (different format according to the news item above) so I wouldn't try to play them on an MP3 player.
>> Edited by FourWheelDrift on Wednesday 12th January 15:53
TeamD said:
That's like saying "I bought a PS2 game, why doesn't it play on my X-Box, it's just another games player"
More like complaining when you can't play CDs on your record deck I would have thought
Yup. I actually suspect he's got a point. What are you buying, the AAC file, or the *right* to own and listen to that piece of music.
If it's the former, he's stuffed.
If it's the latter, he's got a case.
But you can do the same thing with a game on a Xbox and PS2 if you liked I suppose.
He'll lose.
Whilst I disagree with suing for fun and profit...
He does have a point.
And its not the same as buying a game for an x-box etc.
You arnt buying the wonderful techology that makes games run on one platform and not another.
You're buying the song, the technology should be transparent.
WinMX is cheaper anyway
He does have a point.
And its not the same as buying a game for an x-box etc.
You arnt buying the wonderful techology that makes games run on one platform and not another.
You're buying the song, the technology should be transparent.
WinMX is cheaper anyway
b17nns said:
Sorry but I think he has a point.
Didnt even know this to be the case, I thought that music downloaded from iTunes was mp3.
You have paid for the song, why shouldnt you be allowed to listen to it on another device?
How would you feel if you bought a CD by a Sony recording artist but were only allowed to play it on a Sony CD player?
But you can use iTunes to burn a CD that will play on all CD players.
Only problem is that other manufacturers can't/aren't allowed to make MP3 players that can play AAC format tracks. Nothing to to stop you using a conversion program to convert your tracks to MP3 format of course...
Incorrigible said:
The i-pod plays normal mp3s as well doesn't it
Can't see why anyone would buy one otherwise, why doesn't he just buy the tunes from somewhere else
Yep and you can host MP3's in iTunes
If Netscape could render a case against MS about IE then this chap has just as valid a complaint as far as I can see...
Incorrigible said:
The i-pod plays normal mp3s as well doesn't it
Can't see why anyone would buy one otherwise, why doesn't he just buy the tunes from somewhere else
Because he wants to change a major corporation and make them do things his way because he was too fecking stupid to read the technical specifications and terms and conditions.
Is his point not that because the encoding mechanism is proprietary, Apple would be intentionally withholding information about the format to prevent competitors producing a cheaper device with iTunes capability in addition to MP3 etc...which might be an anti-trust issue perhaps.
But the way I see it, if I write some software, it's my copyright and I am under no obligation to give it to someone else so that they can make money out of it by coming along and stealing my market. Blooming, Americans, the want the earth and they expect it to be free now aswell! The basket will probably win aswell!
But the way I see it, if I write some software, it's my copyright and I am under no obligation to give it to someone else so that they can make money out of it by coming along and stealing my market. Blooming, Americans, the want the earth and they expect it to be free now aswell! The basket will probably win aswell!
Incorrigible said:
The i-pod plays normal mp3s as well doesn't it
Can't see why anyone would buy one otherwise, why doesn't he just buy the tunes from somewhere else
itunes software also converts aac to mp3 - at least my version does.
I have used itunes a few times on my mac converted the aac to mp3 using itunes so I can play the mp3's on my mobile. easy
b17nns said:
the iPod is an MP3 player.
Well now you see that's where they're probably going to win. It's not just an mp3 player. It's an AAC player in this case and AAC is a proprietary format. If this case goes through then it leaves open a huge hole which would mean that any proprietary format would have to become open source.
I think there are still enough places for people to buy music online, which will play with different players, not only the ipod.
He isn't forced to buy his music via (at) itunes, so no reason to sue imho.
The interesting bit is that Digital Rights Management (DRM) is exploited to tie customers to sales concepts and regulate competition; not only for managing rights on licenced music files which it was intended for. Many Apple customers don't realise that the itunes software is Apple's tool to control what users can or can't do with their software-dependent hardware player or music files; not only now but any time in future through forcing to upgrade to newer versions.
Hence, I will not buy any Apple music product although I like the ipod's design.
He isn't forced to buy his music via (at) itunes, so no reason to sue imho.
The interesting bit is that Digital Rights Management (DRM) is exploited to tie customers to sales concepts and regulate competition; not only for managing rights on licenced music files which it was intended for. Many Apple customers don't realise that the itunes software is Apple's tool to control what users can or can't do with their software-dependent hardware player or music files; not only now but any time in future through forcing to upgrade to newer versions.
Hence, I will not buy any Apple music product although I like the ipod's design.
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