Apple Deleted iPod Owners' Songs Downloaded From Competing Music Services Between 2007 and 2009

[MacRumors]

Between 2007 and 2009, Apple stealthily deleted content that iPod owners had downloaded from rival music services, reports The Wall Street Journal. The information came to light during an ongoing class action iPod lawsuit that Apple is fighting in court this week, where the Cupertino company is accused of having violated antitrust law by locking its original iPods to the iTunes ecosystem.

According to plaintiff attorney Patrick Coughlin, a user who downloaded music from a competing music service to iTunes and then tried to sync the content to an iPod would receive a nondescript error message. The vague message would advise the iPod owner to restore the device to its factory settings, deleting the music that had been downloaded from a rival service and preventing it from being played.

Apple security director Augustin Farrugia defended the vague error message, stating that Apple didn't want to "confuse users" by providing them with too much information. Farrugia also said the company's efforts to delete music acquired from third-party sources was done in an effort to protect consumers from hackers and malicious content.

Yesterday, lawyers for the plaintiffs shared both a videotaped deposition and emails written by Steve Jobs as evidence that Apple had deliberately stymied competing music services after the launch of the iPod. In the correspondence, the former Apple CEO hatched a plan to accuse competing music service RealNetworks of hacking the iPod when it offered song downloads that could be played on the device.

The class action lawsuit began on Tuesday of this week and is being heard in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. Both Apple marketing head Phil Schiller and iTunes chief Eddy Cue are expected to testify during the court proceedings.

Article Link: Apple Deleted iPod Owners' Songs Downloaded From Competing Music Services Between 2007 and 2009

 

[timshundo]

Horribly innacurate title.

 

[WolfSnap]

iTunes content is licensed, not sold. Same with other services. Each user agreed to the license conditions.

Apple also had documentation on how to REMOVE the DRM from its music, how to rip from CD's, and more. If others are upset over licensing music from other services that did not allow the content's DRM to be removed, that's not Apple's fault.

 

[SchneiderMan]

Good thing iPods are pretty much dead now. Online music streaming is where it's at.

 

[timize]

Kind of a misleading title... its not like Apple went in and deleted those specific songs without the owner knowing (essentially like hacking). The iPod was restored, which coincidentally erases the entire contents of the iPod.

 

[jontech]

Good thing iPods are pretty much dead now. Online music streaming is where it's at.

No playing my library on the phone I already own is where it's at

 

[SchneiderMan]

No playing my library on the phone I already own is where it's at

What? You can play your library on every device you own, not just your phone.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

More Big Brother behavior from Apple. We now need them to decide for us when and how to protect us from hackers and malicious content? And to use that excuse is ridiculous. If they got caught doing this, what else do they do?

 

[Rogifan]

How does one download music from a competing service to iTunes? Or do they mean it was downloaded elsewhere and then imported into iTunes?

I must say though this security director isn't doing Apple any favors:

Apple contends the moves were legitimate security measures. Apple security director Augustin Farrugia testified that Apple did not offer a more detailed explanation because, “We don’t need to give users too much information,” and “We don’t want to confuse users.”

 

[BryanElliott]

1. Shame on Apple for doing this if it is true.

2. Why does it take THIS long for someone to throw a fit about an issues ?

 

[movie-mac]

Good thing iPods are pretty much dead now. Online music streaming is where it's at.

iPods are not dead. Apple sells hundreds of millions every year nowadays. Granted, most of them are "built into" iPhones and iPads…

 

[Glassed Silver]

I don't know what's worse.
What they did or their awful comeback:

Farrugia also said the company's efforts to delete music acquired from third-party sources was done in an effort to protect consumers from hackers and malicious content.

classy

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[Traverse]

Drag your music into iTunes.

 

[SchneiderMan]

iPods are not dead. Apple sells hundreds of millions every year nowadays. Granted, most of them are "built into" iPhones and iPads…

You know what I meant

 

[mainstreetmark]

No playing my library on the phone I already own is where it's at

Double-plus good! Also, no ads.

Make a relationship with your music and you'll be a better person. Online streaming is good for people like me who have a wife that requests christmas music while we do the tree stuff. I don't have a ****ing christmas music, nor do i want any. Stream away!

 

[figgnuttan]

Class. Action NO CLASS!

These comments are wimpy at best.

People don't seem to get it. Why should Apple have let another company into its ecosystem.
If I own a grocery store, you can't come in and tell me you are going to put your stuff on my shelves! And if you do, I would most certainly throw you and your stuff out on the curb.
After Apple wins this, and they will, I hope they take each an every individual in this sham of a class action to court and sues them into abject poverty.

haha....the true American way.

 

[Nermal]

If I own a grocery store, you can't come in and tell me you are going to put your stuff on my shelves! And if you do, I would most certainly throw you and your stuff out on the curb.

This is about the iPod, not the iTunes Store (ie. an iPod isn't a store). A similar analogy would be Apple taking "unapproved" groceries out of your car or house.

 

[8CoreWhore]

Shame on Macrumors for link baiting, treating this lawyer's silly accusation as true without explaining what is really happening.

 

[gnasher729]

This is very misleading.

You never could download directly onto on iPod from any service other than iTunes. It was possible to download music onto your Mac or PC from other services, and some created software that would move that music onto on iPod. However, the music would then still be present on your Mac or PC, and if you didn't do anything stupid, or if you did the clever thing and backed up your computer, you would have these files forever.

It is obviously possible that badly written software that moves music to an iPod might damage things. Worst case, it might make the iPod incapable of playing any music. So what is Apple supposed to do? They assume quite reasonably that any music would still be present on your Mac or PC. So fixing corruption of the data on the iPod by resetting it and copying all the music back from the Mac or PC to the iPod is quite reasonable.

On the other hand, if you use Amazon's download application (which downloads music onto your Mac, not your iPod), they take the official route and it works perfectly: They drop the music into the "Add to iTunes" folder, and iTunes picks it up automatically and then you can put it onto your iPod without any problems at all.

----------

I don't know what's worse.
What they did or their awful comeback:

Third party software corrupted the contents of an iPod. So how can Apple distinguish between incompetently written software and malicious software?

How does one download music from a competing service to iTunes? Or do they mean it was downloaded elsewhere and then imported into iTunes?

Like Amazon does it: Hidden deep inside your iTunes folder is a folder named "Automatically Add to iTunes". All a competing service has to do is move music files into that folder, and iTunes will import them. That's what Amazon does, and it works just fine.

 

[CyBeRino]

How does one download music from a competing service to iTunes? Or do they mean it was downloaded elsewhere and then imported into iTunes?

I must say though this security director isn't doing Apple any favors:

This is back when Real figured out how to Fairplay-encrypt their own content so they could sell it (which back then required DRM or the labels wouldn't license it) and have iPods/iTunes be able to play it. They called it Harmony. Apple of course didn't like that.

 

[Renzatic]

Third party software corrupted the contents of an iPod. So how can Apple distinguish between incompetently written software and malicious software?

The question is, did the iPod delete non Apple approved content occasionally, or did it report an error and ask to reformat itself every single time you attempted to move competitor bought music to it?

If it's the former, you have a point. It could very well be an issue with 3rd part software not doing its job well. If it's the later, that's a little low, and kinda hard to defend.

 

[brdeveloper]

There will be a day when people will get tired of closed ecosystems. But I can't see this day in the near future.

 

[mtneer]

So what is the problem here? Users expect Apple to support music that was purchased from other stores? Why would Apple do that? Do users expect Ford parts to work on a Chevy? A fake K-cup in a coffee maker? The wrong cartridge in a printer? Lots of companies insist on using their parts and consumers accept that as reasonable - why pick on Apple? Is it because they have the deepest pockets?

 

[itr81]

Umm if you don't know that resetting your iPod just returns it to its factory settings then you probably shouldn't be operating one. Anyone with basic computer experience would know this. He might have even put the files on there like a hdd. Our gov will let anyone sue for any dang thing..

 

[Renzatic]

And who is not evil according to you, oh one of great wisdom.

Everyone is evil! I'm gonna throw away all my computers, and go live out in the woods!

I think this whole "x is evil" thing is getting way out of hands. Unless Apple, Google, or MS are actively killing orphans, and grinding up their souls to power their cloud platforms, I wouldn't call any of them evil. Cheesy? Sure. Occasionally creepy. Why not? But evil? Nah.