Apple’s ex-CEO ‘upset’ in email
Suit says iTunes’ rivals impeded
Steve Jobs’ warning a decade ago that he was “mighty upset” with a music studio’s support for a digital music service that competed with iTunes and his demand for a correction were cited this week to support a claim that Apple Inc. sought to maintain an illegal monopoly.
Attorneys for consumers continued to try to show that Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and former chief executive officer, was behind an effort to keep music from other services off the iPod in the third day of a federal trial in Oakland, Calif.
Jurors on Thursday saw a 2004 email from Jobs reacting to a Universal Music Group Inc. executive’s public statements applauding a rival service created by RealNetworks Inc.
“A reactive statement isn’t good enough for us,” Jobs said. “We want a press release from Universal correcting this terrible statement,” he said, adding “we are mighty upset.”
A lawyer for consumers tried to get Apple’s iTunes Store chief Eddy Cue, who was called as a witness, to agree that Jobs’ complaint succeeded in getting Universal to issue a corrective statement. Cue responded
that the studio said “things we didn’t agree with and think weren’t correct,” while disagreeing with the attorney.
Jobs “doesn’t have that kind of power,” Cue testified. The studio realized the statements were wrong and corrected them on its own, he said.
Internal emails between Jobs and other senior executives at Apple were shown to the jury earlier in the week in a bid to depict the late CEO as the mastermind of a push to stymie competitors. The jury is also expected to see a video recording of testimony Jobs gave six months before he died in October 2011.
Cue acknowledged Thursday he was dismayed to learn about a RealNetworks service that would let consumers buy songs to play on the iPod. He said his biggest concern was protecting the iPod from hackers.
“Steve was mighty upset with me and the team whenever we got hacked,” he said.
Attorneys representing buyers of iPods from 2006 to 2009 claim Apple modified iTunes software so music downloaded with RealNetworks software couldn’t be played. Locking iPod owners into iTunes stifled competition for downloading services and enabled Apple to charge more for iPods, they claim.
Apple was curious about how RealNetworks was able to get around Apple’s digital rights management software that prevented music purchased elsewhere from running on the iPod, Cue said.
“One of the purposes of DRM is to keep hackers and others away,” Cue said. If RealNetworks had found a “back door” around the software, that meant others including hackers could, he said.
Apple on Friday said U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers should dismiss the case because no named plaintiff can show injury from the conduct alleged in the complaint.
The named plaintiffs no longer have a right, or standing, to sue given that none of them purchased an iPod during the period covered by the lawsuit, Bill Isaacson, Apple’s attorney, said in court papers. He said other courts have dismissed cases under similar circumstances rather than allow another named plaintiff to be found.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of as many as 8 million consumers and 500 retailers and resellers who bought iPods during the period.
Apple said it would agree to wait for a decision on its dismissal request until after the trial is over.