Steve Jobs Video Deposition to Play Vital Role in Antitrust Suit Over iPod

Apple this week faces a major antitrust lawsuit concerning older iPods, and this time, Steve Jobs will play an important part in the case. Potential damages are pegged at $350 million, a small amount compared to the company's yearly profits.

The suit concerns older iPod models that only supported music purchased from iTunes, or songs from imported CDs. Plaintiffs claim that Apple violated antitrust laws by limiting music playback to only iPod, while only promoting their products/services.

The plaintiffs' lawyers believe that emails and video deposition taken before Steve Jobs died will show that Apple took action to block competitors and harm consumers.


He was a “genius in terms of his vision for the future,” said Michael A. Carrier, a professor at Rutgers School of Law. “But it went along with a really healthy ego and perhaps the lack of an antitrust filter — thinking about how these words would appear years later tossed up on the screen in front of a jury.”

Some emails have already been made public, and in one, Jobs expressed concern over a competitor launching their own music store.

“We need to make sure that when Music Match launches their download music store they cannot use iPod,” he wrote. “Is this going to be an issue?”

As the trial continues, more emails are expected to surface. Apple is expected to show that different iTunes updates were aimed to improve its products rather than harm competitors or consumers.


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