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Apple has revealed it purposefully deleted songs on iPods that were bought from rival stores.
The admission came during an on-going class action lawsuit against Apple over its alleged monopoly position in the music market.
During the firm’s testimony, Apple said music purchased through the RealPlayer store – amongst others – was deleted on iPods between 2006 and 2009.
Apparently when users synced their iPods with iTunes, the software would check to see if music had been bought from other sources.
Should any competing material be discovered, an error protocol would engage and require the iPod to be restored.
Restoring obviously deleted all content on the iPod, and re-syncing would only add iTunes content again.
Apple says the intent of the system was to ensure iPods weren’t being compromised by third-party software in order to protect users.
The plaintiffs claim, however, that Apple was merely looking to create a monopoly and force users to make purchases through its own iTunes store.
Videotapes of Steve Jobs were shown to the jury yesterday, as well as e-mails between Apple top brass regarding the decision to delete Real Player media.
Both Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue are still due to testify in the trial, which could see payable damages rise as high as $1.05 billion.
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Via: WSJ