Despite being on medical leave, Steve Jobs has been ordered by a US Magistrate to answer questions in court about the iTunes music store and Apple’s supposedly monopolistic behavior, Bloomberg reports.
The order was imposed by US Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd, who is ruling over a class-action lawsuit aimed at Apple and iTunes. Steve Jobs will have to submit to “limited” questioning of under two hours, with questioning to be focused only on the changes that Apple made to their iPod software back in 2004.
In case you weren’t around then, here’s what happened. Back in 2004, RealNetworks’ Harmony software gained a feature allowing users to transfer songs purchased from the RealNetworks store directly to their iPod by emulating Apple’s FairPlay DRM. Apple got angry, claiming that RealNetworks deployed the “tactics and ethics of a hacker.” Then they fixed the iPod software so that Harmony could no longer connect. T
“The court finds that Jobs has unique, non-repetitive, firsthand knowledge about the issues at the center of the dispute over RealNetworks software,” Judge Lloyd said in relation to his ruling.
Apple disagrees. “Any deposition of Mr.Jobs would be repetitive, at best,” says Apple lawyer David Kiernan.
[via AppleInsider]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
5 responses to “Steve Jobs To Undergo 2 Hours “Limited Questioning” on 2004 Apple/RealNetworks DRM Spat”
Should I sue Sony because my VHS tapes did not work on their Betamax? Or how about suing Sony because my Blue-ray discs won’t work on my DVD player? Why is it that if you can’t innovate you sue?
“Despite being on medical leave” doesn’t really seem relevant when the guy is fronting keynotes still
Fascinating, wonder if he will show up in the usual blue jeans and black turtle neck??
http://www.real-privacy.it.tc