Apple didn’t settle, they are going on trial and basically Apple is in Oakland along with some plaintiffs. The plaintiffs are claiming that Apple artificially rigged the digital music scene years ago, essentially creating a proprietary ecosystem between the iPod and iTunes and locking out other players, both on the hardware side and the digital music side. The lawsuit is about $315 million, but when its an antitrust suit like this, basically if Apple looses the suit it’s three times damaging, so more than $1 billion is in stake here.
It’s just opening statements right now, but i gotta say that all eyes are on Apple and whether or not they crossed the line with how they handled the music industry.
A group of both individuals and businesses claimed that the 2006 iTunes update dictated that iTunes music can only be played on iPod’s. Apple’s defense interestingly said that the software update contained genuine product improvements and therefor it’s not competitive. They also pointed out that the competition was so tiny, such a tiny fraction of the market, it’s like what’s the difference, how many people are really gonna be affected by this. That was Apple’s point essentially.
We will see how this lawsuit goes, it is not really clear, whether they are going to win this or lose this -worst case scenario, they lose this and pay $1 billion out of their $100 billion’s sitting somewhere in giant bags.
The other interesting thing that a lot of people is watching, is the fact that Steve Jobs, his emails, recorded depositions…etc, will be used in the trial and it is sorta strange it’s “Jobs from the graves” and his words, but he can’t be called to a cross-examination or to point out what he meant by his words. A lot of people red some of his emails, where you think it means one thing, or it is emotionally charged or not, and when you actually speak with the person you found out that the original interpretation of the email was wrong. So, curious to see how the plaintiffs in this case leverage these emails and than how Apple responds to them.