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A federal judge has ordered Apple CEO Steve Jobs to submit to questioning relating to a 2004 iPod software update which rendered content purchased from competing digital music store Harmony inoperable on the device.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been ordered by a federal judge to submit to questioning in an antitrust case which alleges that the tech company iTunes service constitutes a music downloading monopoly. The order comes from U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd, who is overseeing the proceedings on a complaint that was taken to the courts back in 2005, Bloomberg reports.
The plaintiff’s legal team must abide by a number of court-imposed restrictions; Jobs’ deposition may not exceed two hours and questions must be limited to issues surrounding software changes Apple made in October 2004 that prevented music purchased from RealNetworks, Inc. from working with the iPod MP3 player. The Seattle-based iTunes competitor announced in July 2004 that music purchased from its Harmony online store would work with the popular Apple media players. Five days later, a new iPod software update was revealed with tweaks Apple’s FairPlay — the proprietary software used to encode iTunes content — that would prevent RealNetworks content from working.
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