Interesting iPod lawsuit

While most of the monopoly/anti-trust stuff that gets so easily thrown around is without merit, it's still interesting to see that somebody is suing Apple for only allowing iTunes to work with its iPod, thereby freezing out competitors. The uphill climb of this suit is that it must convince the court that iTunes is a unique market in itself, different from other online music sites.

The typical perspective is that if you want an iPod, you buy it knowing that you'll only be able to buy music online from iTunes. If you want to purchase songs from other sites, you likely wouldn't buy an iPod.

However, consider the case of someone who primarily listens to music on their computer, and has built up a considerable collection of purchased songs. If you subsequently decided that you wanted to buy a portable media player, you'd have no choice but an iPod.

Note that I'm not commenting on the merits of the case, just pointing out a different spin.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 05, 2005
  That's like building up a huge video tape collection and then getting upset because DVD players don't play VHS tapes. Those people who built up iTunes music collections did so knowing that they were just that -- iTunes music collections. They aren't mp3s or some other standard (if there is such a thing as a standard music format). Apple isn't selling the service, the player, or the music files as a universal music solution. It's stictly an Apple solution and has been advertised as such. Sure it would be nice if it was universal and I could use any player/software/etc. but it's not.<br><br>I know you aren't taking a stance one way or the other, I'm just pointing out what I feel is the weakness in the second argument.
• Anonymous
  January 05, 2005
  You can convert the songs purchased from the iTMS to MP3 - burn the songs to a CD, then rip them as you would a shop-bought CD. So you would have a choice of players if you didn't want an iPod as MP3s will play on pretty much any device.
  
  When you buy an iPod, you don't buy it knowing or thinking that you will only be able to buy from the iTMS. You buy it knowing that you'll be able to put all your CDs on it. The vast, vast majority of music on people's iPods, and other players, is music that they already own.
  
• Anonymous
  January 05, 2005
  &gt; If you want to purchase songs from other sites, you likely wouldn't buy an iPod.<br><br>Not necessarily. There are music download sites like <a target="_new" href="http://www.warprecords.com/bleep/">http://www.warprecords.com/bleep/</a> which are not DRM protected, in which case you are free to use whatever player you like.
• Anonymous
  January 27, 2005
  This is an interesting perspective! Of course, if MS only supported 'Windows'/'MS' branded players, or visa versa, they would get their hand slapped quicker than it takes to fry eggs on a Texas highway (which is very fast indeed).