From DailyTech: The so-called "Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation" class action lawsuit wrapped up this week at the U.S. District Court, for the Northern District of California (CAND-USC) with a major triumph for Apple, Inc. (AAPL), the defendant.
The case has been crawling through federal courts for nearly a decade, with a predecessor case filed in Jan. 2005. The lawsuit deals with Apple's use of a form of digital rights management (DRM) technology called "FairPlay". Apple claimed the technology protected musicians against copyright infringement.
But its rivals and some of its customers complained that locked out competitors in the MP3 market (as FairPlay songs would only play on iPods). As Apple had more than 90 percent share of the portable music player (PMP) market in many regions, critics claimed FairPlay constituted an abuse of a dominant position and violated federal antitrust laws in the U.S.
Apple also pointed out that it wasn't operating any differently than game console makers Sony Corp. (TYO:6758), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), and the Nintendo Comp., Ltd. (TYO:7974) who also lock rivals out of their content. Indeed, Sony even did this on its music as well, famously going as far as to put backdoor Trojan and rootkit malware on its music CDs, that installed silently on users' computers.
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