Thats right! IPod owners who bought the device around September 12th 2006 and March 2009 have been receiving E-Mails from the media company RealNetworks.
The developer of Real Player and Harmony has officially filed a class-action lawsuit against these users and Apple. The Class law suit is a type of lawsuit that collectively put forward a claim in which a class of defendants is being sued. Class action is predominantly used in the U.S as it has become redundant in many Europe states and replaced with civil law. A class action can be used (amongst other reasons) when the size of the group is so large it is best dealt with in one single case rather than multiple individual cases.
So why are they suing Apple again? Well in 2004 RealNetworks developed a service called Harmony which is a digital rights management service. The service enabled users to play music from downloaded via RealPlayer music store on the IPod.
All IPod users are aware that in order for music to be assessable to play it must available in ITunes first. Apple developed a firmware update shortly after it was announced Harmony with filing a law suit against them. The update had blocked users from being able to upload music sing harmony and other services.
The lawsuit claims that Apple were responsible for breaching federal and state law by developing and dispensing software that would stop IPod users from playing music that was not bought via ITunes. The update made it at prices was increase more than they should have been.
There were a few disgruntled users that filed anti-trust lawsuits against Apple, claiming that Apple where unlawfully blocking the competition and it has been picking up speed.
If you happen to be one of those IPod users which includes: 1st to 4th Gen Nanos, 2nd to 3rd Gen Touches, 1st to 3rd Gen Shuffles and 5th Gen IPods. You will be included in the lawsuit but you can opt out if you don’t want to be part of it.
