Ipod lawsuit

[Johnd]

Apple is being sued (I know...but some people use them) for unfairly restricting music playback. Specifically, the WMA format, which is owned by Windows. I just thought it ironic that after years of defending his company against antitrust allegations, he now (vicariously) finds himself in the driver's seat. I guess my commentary is: Can't we all just get along, play nicely, and have free-floating music in our players regardless of its' format? Where was Sony when SACD could not be universally played on all dvd players?

 

[fmw]

Does the suit suggest that Apple needs to ad WMA decoding to the iPod? Sorry, but that's ridiculous. Courts have no business deciding what codecs an electronics manufacturer should make available in its products. This is the land of the free, isn't it?

 

[Johnd]

Does the suit suggest that Apple needs to ad WMA decoding to the iPod? Sorry, but that's ridiculous. Courts have no business deciding what codecs an electronics manufacturer should make available in its products. This is the land of the free, isn't it?

Yes...read the article. They proclaim that the codec could be added for $0.03 per unit. That's what makes it interesting/plausible. Either way, like it or not, unfair restrictions is the province of the courts. This case just happens to do with WMA. But it does beg the question, what if every entity that owned a format sued every entity that restricted its' playback compatibility? What a quagmire that would be.

 

[emorphien]

Apple has had plenty of restrictions and nusicances built in to the iPod & iTunes system that were just as worthy of lawsuits as most of the things Microsoft has been nailed for in recent years (IE, search in Vista, etc).