iTunes User Sues Apple Over Lock-In

GregChant writes "It seems like Apple can also be at the receiving end of a lawsuit, too: Californian Thomas Slattery filed suit against Apple because 'Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice'. With over 200 million songs sold, and Apple controlling over 80% of the hard drive digital audio player market, is this just a case of someone just trying to cash in on Apple's success? Or is this genuinely an issue of buyer lock-in and monopolistic practices?"

Comments

Um, hey..

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

I agree with this guy. Locking us in. Where do I sign up for the free money?

a test...

[REBloomfield]

Or is this genuinely an issue of buyer lock-in and monopolistic practices?"

if (vendor == apple) { slash.bots =: defendDeity } else if (vendor = microsoft) { slash.bots =: postFlamebait }

Re:a test...

[REBloomfield]

i grew up with smalltalk. i dunno what that mess above is.....

Re:a test...

[teslar]

if (vendor == apple) { slash.bots =: defendDeity } else if (vendor = microsoft) { slash.bots =: postFlamebait }

"And thus, in AD2005, because of one line of unchecked code, Slashdot began flaming all vendors apart from Apple. What seemed irrelevant at first had huge implications for mankind as it paved the way for Apple's domination of all things electronic, with all major non-Apple vendors being virtually extinct by the second decade of the 21st century. As we saw in the introduction, it was Apple who first introduced self-regulating computers in an effort to relieve the user from the chores of setting up and configuring his machine. It is because of Apple's "you don't need to know how it works" policy and its success at making the machines do exactly what the user wanted, without any requirement for the user to have any knowledge whatsoever about the machine's working, that we today do not understand how Our Masters operate.
But before we review this in more detail, we will be concentrating on the Google Grid in the next chapter"
-Excerpt of Chapter 5 of 'From Internet to World-Ruling Self-Conscious Network of Computing Machines: The History of Our Overlords. Volume 1: Towards Automation: The Beginnings.'
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2037

Or better yet

[Swamii]

if(vendor == MSFT)
{
throw new SlashbotAngryFitException();
}
else
{
Slashbots.Fud.Spew();
while(true)
{
Defense defend = new Defense();
defend.ToTheDeath(vendor);

ButtKiss praise = new ButtKiss();
if(RMS.IsScragglyOldHippy)
{
praise.BendOverFor(RMS);
}

if(GPL.IsFashionableForGeeksToDefend && GPL.NeverRead && GPL.IsViral)
{
praise.KissArse(GPL);
}

if(Linux.Creator == Linux && Linus.IsHumble && Linux.IsFashionableForGeeksToUse && MSFT == TEHSUXORS)
{
praise.LickPussy(Linus | Linux);
}
}
}

Re:Bogus

[j.bellone]

But you need to remember that Apple are the good guys; Microsoft is the devil. That's how Slashdot is run.

i've been locked in all my life

[Anonymous Coward]

one time i bought this thing called a compact disc, and then i realized that i had to buy a CD player to play it on.

man did i feel locked in.

Re:I agree...

[BillGodfrey]

Let's see, using iTunes it takes all of three clicks to burn a CD.

Wow! You mean I don't need to buy a CD writer or any blanks? This iTunes thing must be wonderful.

Re:Convert iTunes file to mp3

[hayden]

I DID NOT write this script!

Yeah. I wouldn't admit to knowing VB either.