Former iTunes engineer subpoenaed to describe Apple's war against hackers

December 14, 2014

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the class-action iPod lawsuit against Apple subpoenaed a former iTunes engineer to testify Friday, hoping that his statement will help their side of the suit. In his testimony, Rod Schultz told the court that during his tenure at Apple, he worked on a project intended to block 100 percent of non-iTunes clients and third-party players that competed against Apple's iPod.

Apple executives, including Steve Jobs in a video deposition taken months before his death, have repeatedly stated that stringent DRM policies were put into place as part of Apple's contract with the record labels.

A report on the the Wall Street Journal described Schiltz as an unwilling witness for the plaintiff's case.

Outside the courtroom Schultz said the early work of his former team reflected the digital-music market's need for copyright protections of songs. Later, though, he said it created "market dominance" for the iPod. Schultz left Apple in 2008.

Apple argues – and Schultz agreed in court Friday – that it released many improvements to iTunes, and not isolated changes to stifle competition. Apple says the security measures that Schultz worked on were designed to protect its systems and users' experience, which would have been compromised by other players and file formats.

Schultz was called as a witness because of an academic paper he authored in 2012 describing the war Apple was waging against hackers. The judge did not admit the paper into evidence, however.

The lawsuit has had its fair share of drama, including plaintiffs representing the class-action who did not purchase qualifying iPod devices during the period specified in the case.

The jury will deliberate early next week.

Source: Wall Street Journal