SAN FRANCISCO
A California jury on Tuesday found Apple not guilty in an antitrust lawsuit lodged against the company for allowing music bought only from the iTunes store to play on its iPod music players.
During the 10-day trial the jury heard arguments about whether the iTunes 7.0 update, released in 2006, was anticompetitive.
Had it lost, Apple would have had to pay damages to businesses and individuals who bought iPods between 2007 and 2009. The plaintiffs were seeking $350 million, but that figure would’ve multiplied because of antitrust legislation, potentially up to $1 billion.
Former Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs came up several times during the proceedings – for the defense and prosecution.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that because Apple programmed iPods to reject music bought from other companies, Apple could charge more for the device.
Several emails from Jobs dating to the early days of iTunes were used against Jobs’ company, when Apple was debating how to keep ahead in the infant digital music market.
In 2003, for example, Jobs wrote an email to Apple executives about software maker Music Match launching a digital music store.
“We need to make sure that when Music Match launches their download music store they cannot use iPod,” he noted. “Is this going to be an issue?”
Apple used a 30-minute video of Jobs recorded just six months before his death in October 2011 to argue that the software restrictions built into iPods were meant to hamper hackers, not competition.
"We were very scared," of hackers attacking Apple’s system and stealing music files, Jobs said in the video. The attacks could have potentially to cost the company lucrative contracts with record labels already skittish about piracy.
An attorney for the plaintiffs told The Wall Street Journal that they plan to appeal the decision.
But as Apple celebrated its victory after a long battle, severe fluctuations in the Russian rouble caused Cupertino to stop online sales of its products in Russia on Tuesday. The currency fell by as much as 20 percent Tuesday, causing a ripple effect throughout the global economy.
Apple said in a statement that its online store in Russia would be closed as the company reviewed pricing.
www.aa.com.tr/en
