Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple Antitrust Case Finds New Consumer Plaintiff

Posted by timothy on from the you-may-have-already-won dept.

An anonymous reader writes Class action against Apple is set to continue after 65-year-old amateur figure skater Barbara Bennett decided she would volunteer to represent consumers in the faltering antitrust case. U.S. district judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers is reportedly satisfied that Bennett qualifies as a class member, telling attorneys that they 'were on the right track.' Bennett offered to volunteer in the case after reading an online news story which suggested that the suit was floundering due to a lack of a named plaintiff after the last plaintiff was disqualified earlier this week.

39 comments

  1. Bennett, frequent volunteer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    There she is! Bennett's contributing!

    1. Re: Bennett, frequent volunteer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love this guy!

    2. Re: Bennett, frequent volunteer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, I bet you I know where the "online news story" was posted.

  2. I hate Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But I hate lawyers more.

    1. Re:I hate Apple by zieroh · · Score: 2

      Perhaps you need to re-examine what is important in life, then. Hate is just a waste of life.

      --
      People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
    2. Re:I hate Apple by Khyber · · Score: 1

      "Hate is just a waste of life."

      Good, we need more hate because we certainly need less life on this planet. Let's start with politicians and lawyers, first.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    3. Re:I hate Apple by DRJlaw · · Score: 2

      Good, we need more hate because we certainly need less life on this planet. Let's start with politicians and lawyers, first.

      As long as you people insist upon trying to control what your neighbors do, weaseling out of paying your debts, cheating the people you do business with, and making up your own rules that totally suprisingly favor whatever side you're supporting at the moment, there will be politicians and lawyers.

      The politicians are just doing what you tell them to do -- or more specifically, what the people who actually care are telling them to do. Those who sit on their ass writing meaningless missives of how it's all rigged against them without actually organizing their neighbors get what they deserve.

      The lawyers are usually trying to prevent you from being screwed by the other guys. And before you retort that lawyers are encouraging the screwing, remember that our technological surveillance state is being created by the engineers and computer scientists -- not politicians using off-the-shelf parts. You're no better. Behave yourselves and lawyers won't have clients. Then there'll be less of them.

    4. Re: I hate Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Love the comment, hate the reality. Which, is that it implies a level of mutual understanding most people are not prepared to accept or reliably sustain.

  3. Singles ad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Me: single law firm with a pending lawsuit against a deep pockets company. Likes long walks on the beach and watching old movies.
    You: a potential plaintiff, looking for a good time and maybe more. Oh yeah, and potential big payout for both of us.

    Whatever Apple may have done, shopping for plaintiffs like this just feels wrong.

    Courtesy of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

    1. Re:Singles ad? by kanweg · · Score: 1

      To reap their planned benefits, the law firm representing the plaintiffs could easily handsomely *pay* the volunteer because if the suit were fall through because of the lack of a plaintiff, then there is no victory and only financial loss.

      Bert

    2. Re:Singles ad? by alphatel · · Score: 1

      And can just as easily settle for any amount without worrying about the plaintiff getting huffy about it.

      --
      When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
  4. Like there weren't any other competitors around by johnlcallaway · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What a bunch of BS. Apple only prevented people from loading third party music on the device they sold, not on everyone's.

    That's why I didn't buy one. I don't buy any Apple product because the company limits choice beyond what is reasonable and purely for control purposes. I have no doubt they are telling the truth, that it's because of music deals and iTunes. I can believe that Apple wanted to lock their customers into iTunes and was willing to make such deals.

    But I fail to see how this can be an antitrust issue when there were plenty of other choices that we cheaper. It was only an issue for the iDrones out there who couldn't see past their little white cases.

    BTW ... my wife had a nano. Hated iTunes. She gave it away 6 months after I gave it to her for Christmas. What a piece of crap software, I should have known better.

    --
    I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
    1. Re:Like there weren't any other competitors around by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 4, Informative

      Apple only prevented people from loading third party music on the device they sold, not on everyone's.

      Only third party music laced with DRM. Normal mp3 files from any source have always worked seamlessly.

    2. Re:Like there weren't any other competitors around by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > BTW ... my wife had a nano. Hated iTunes. She gave it away 6 months after I gave it to her for Christmas. What a piece of crap software, I should have known better.

      Well, I knew better. And it didn't help.

      My daughter, she wanted an iPhone. Some 2 years later, she admitted I was right and said she wanted an Android phone (which, as a Linux system, should be freer, but still...).

      Then she wanted a 7th gen nano. Great looks, nice performance and, of course, iTunes.

      She more or less got tired of it, so I'm investigating ways to minimize my money loss. For the iPhone, it seems there are ways to install some sort of Linux, but I really wanted to install Rockbox, but it seems they're working on the 6th gen right now.

      Any suggestions? (no, ditching it is not an option, I'm a kind of "reuse" guy)

    3. Re:Like there weren't any other competitors around by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      At this point, for most people, there's really no need to use iTunes if you have an iDevice. For my part, I still use iTunes for listening to audio when I'm at my desk, since I'm used to it at this point and don't want to bother learning something new, but even for me all of the tacked-on iDevice management stuff has always made it feel like a bloated piece of crap, so I eagerly ditched using those to manage my iDevices as soon as it became reasonable to do so years ago.

      Backups: Use iCloud Backup in Settings > iCloud > Backup. It automatically backs up in the background when you do your regular charging of the device and have WiFi access, meaning that you never need to remember to do it. The 5GB free option was always enough for my backups, but the upgrade prices are reasonable ($1/mo. = 20GB, $4/mo. = 200GB, $10/mo. = 500GB, $20/mo. = 1TB), and that space can also be used for iCloud's other services, like iCloud Drive (their alternative to Dropbox/Box/OneDrive/Google Drive/whatever that can be used on iOS, Windows, and OS X). If you buy a new iDevice later, all you need to do is give it your iCloud login info and it can automatically restore from the latest backup. Makes getting a new device super simple.

      Apps: Buy directly from the App Store app on iOS. No need to ever use iTunes to sync apps.

      Music: If you've already made the move to streaming services (e.g. Pandora or Spotify), this is a non-issue. If you're someone like me who prefers to own his own music, then you can use something like Amazon Music, Google Drive, iTunes Match, or a similar service to sync your music from your PC to the cloud, then from the cloud to your iDevice (either with streaming or downloading). I use iTunes Match ($25/year), which, despite its name, only requires iTunes to be used for the uploading process (e.g. the initial upload, then any subsequent uploads of music you purchased from places other than iTunes). After that, you can uninstall iTunes on your PC and continue to use the service just fine. For me, it won out since it's built into iOS (Settings > iTunes & App Store), and once you enable it and tell iOS to Show All of your media, you can play any of those uploaded tracks directly from the cloud (freeing up all of that space on your device), or else download them to keep locally. Amazon Music and Google Drive can do similarly, I believe, though they run in their own apps. I'll let others provide details regarding them.

      Photos: Use IFTTT or one of a number of other services that can run in the background and automatically upload your pictures to your Dropbox/Instagram/Flickr/Google Drive/whatever. You'll never need to remember to back them up again since they'll automatically be wherever you want them.

      Video: Between all of the sources for streaming video (e.g. YouTube, Netflix) and all of the ways to load your own video onto an iDevice (e.g. VLC), there isn't a need to use iTunes at all. You can still rent/purchase stuff from the iTunes Store vide your iDevice, without ever launching iTunes on your PC, if you're so inclined.

      Of course, all of this stuff is specific to iOS devices, so it won't help you at all with the non-touch iPods. I don't have an answer for you when it comes to those.

      TL;DR: Ditch iTunes, but keep the iOS device and use third party services or built-in iOS functionality to provide those features. You should be able to do everything just as well or better.

    4. Re:Like there weren't any other competitors around by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait till the next time you have to install the new version of IOS and you ran out of free space, or you have to do a clean install of IOS because of botched OS upgrade.

    5. Re:Like there weren't any other competitors around by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      Neither of those are issues for me.

      As I said, because I'm pushing my pictures and videos off my phone immediately, they aren't taking up any space on it. Apps are basically the only thing taking up any space, and it's easy to clean a few out if necessary, though I've never had to purposefully do so (I do delete apps that I don't expect to ever use again, such as games I've beaten already, but I can't recall the last time I deleted apps just to clear up space).

      As for a botched upgrade, I still have backups, so I don't see what the problem is there. Just restore the phone to factory default, punch in your Apple ID info, and it will immediately restore everything, just the same as if you had a new phone. Easy peasy.

  5. We already know this by OzPeter · · Score: 1

    In the last /. story about this case, Apple DRM Lawsuit Loses Last Plaintiff, but Judge Rules Against Dismissal
    , there was a comment that pointed out Bennett as the new plaintiff. And that Bennett had become the plaintiff well and truly before that /. story hit the front page then.

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
  6. There's something wrong with the legal system by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    How can a legal system get so messed up that the lawyers actually need to go looking for plaintiffs during the proceedings?
    How is this not grounds for instant dismissal of the case on the spot? I mean I know we have a legal system where you can sue for anything, but I thought that you still had to be somehow related to the case you were suing against.

    1. Re:There's something wrong with the legal system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... I thought that you still had to be somehow related to the case you were suing against.

      You'd also think that you'd have to be related to a loan to take out insurance against defaulting on it. Either the lender or the borrower.

      Yet the banks, insurance companies, and the SEC let people do exactly that. Which is how we got the economic collapse of 2008. And the American public had the extraordinary privilege of bailing out the banks and insurance companies who made those loans and sold that insurance.

      But, if you can buy insurance for anything, related or not, then I guess you can sue for anything, related or not, and work on finding a legitimate plaintiff later. It's kinda like buying a life insurance policy, and then looking for a dying person to attach it to later so that you can collect.

    2. Re:There's something wrong with the legal system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There were three plaintifs originally. Two of them 'withdrew' - this is a common problem in cases against the mob - and the final one was disqualified for not being able to prove purchase within the correct date range. Also, none of them were known to be 65 year old amateur figure skaters, which is crucial from a legal standpoint.

  7. Real news from the case by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Informative

    And if you want some real news Former iTunes Engineer Tells Court He Worked to Block Competitors

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    1. Re:Real news from the case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And if you want the real story when you read that, it's "Apple argues – and Schultz agreed in court Friday – that it released many improvements to iTunes, and not isolated changes to stifle competition."

    2. Re:Real news from the case by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Well if you read the whole story you might have mentioned this bit "The plaintiffs sought to submit a 2012 academic paper Schultz wrote citing âoea secret warâ Apple fought with iTunes hackers." You could spin it that Apple blocked out competitors but you failed to mention that they hacked their way into an iPod. If you had MP3s Apple did not block them in any way. My music from Amazon has never been blocked.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  8. Re:Future lawsuits include: by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

    There used to be an adapter to play cassettes in the 8-track players.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  9. Re:Future lawsuits include: by michelcolman · · Score: 1

    As for your PS4 games on Xbox, I dunno, AFAIK you are allowed, or at least not disallowed. I don't know how that'd work exactly. Maybe you want to play them on your microwave oven too. If you can convert the object file formats and the machine instruction sets and solve the different rendering engines, and all the other physical incompatibilities then I'd be willing to bet you could play them.

    And then get sued for violating the DMCA.

  10. Re:Future lawsuits include: by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 2

    These are all physically incompatible. But an MP3 file is an MP3 file.

    Not in this case. The files in question contained Real's DRM. That's why they had to backdoor them. If they were actually standard MP3 files they would have worked without issue, and would still be working today.

  11. Re:Pay your TAXES first !!!! by zieroh · · Score: 1, Informative

    If the corporations were actually in violation of tax laws, your statement might be meaningful. If you want corporations to pay more taxes, that's fine. Tell your congresscritter to change the laws. Alleging that they are not paying taxes that the law requires them to pay, however, does not square with the known facts.

    --
    People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
  12. Dear Judge, by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

    You'll find your bag of money on the basement level of the parking garage behind the garbage can in the southwest corner.

    Sincerely,
    The Trial Lawyers

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  13. Boring lawsuit by iamacat · · Score: 1

    I have two affected devices and don't care. RealNetworks could have offered watermarked, DRM free MP3s like Amazon did eventually and indie labels offered in the day. What would be interesting is a lawsuit to let people load apps from any source on devices they own, regardless of monopoly status of the vendor. Android and Apple's own OSX are proof that this is not a death sentence to the company.

    1. Re:Boring lawsuit by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Android and Apple's own OSX are proof that this is not a death sentence to the company.

      So, your example is to show that only Samsung is really making profits (HTC and the rest are struggling), and only by carpetbombing the market with hundreds of phones (seriously - Samsung has released 2 new smartphones per week in 2014, and 1 tablet per week).

      And your other example is in a market that's declining (Mac sales are declining to stable, but far far less profitable than iOS).

      Yeah, it may not be a death knell, but do we need to bring up the "Apple is dying" meme again? Your examples where companies are struggling to exist or product lines that have significantly diminished sales volume doesn't actually provide any backing to your statement. In fact, one could say that other than Samsung, Android isn't a moneymaker, and OS X shows a slow gradual fall.

  14. So if... by maroberts · · Score: 1

    ...there has been this enormous struggle to find a qualifying plaintiff, there cant be that many who really give a damn, can there?

    It really seems like this is a class action by lawyers, for lawyers.

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

  15. Apple's a gonner! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple is in trouble

  16. How hard could it be to find someone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Over a four-year period when the iPod was at its apogee as a product, how hard could it have been to find someone who owned one?

  17. Re:Pay your TAXES first !!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think poster already established about the role of lobbying. What is criminal, with small donation becomes the law and is legal.