Apple gets slapped with antitrust lawsuit

San Diego (CA) - Apple, once heralded as the saving grace for people who wanted to avoid the Microsoft monopoly, is now finding itself with monopolistic allegations of its own.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed in a California US District Court, alleging that Apple is participating in unfair business practices.

Filed on New Year’s Eve, the suit was brought forth by San Diego resident Stacie Somers. She owns a 30 GB iPod and says Apple has violated the law by not allowing her to play Windows Media Audio files, an open format. Furthermore, she notes that music purchased on iTunes can only be transferred to Apple devices, though the company’s digital rights management (DRM) package known as FairPlay.

The suit has been filed as a class-action, meaning other Americans could join in, in this case anyone who bought an iPod or any copy-protected iTunes tracks since December 31, 2003, according to the terms of the complaint.

Apple has seen similar allegations in the US before, as well as in Europe. However, it may have come a bit too late, as iTunes is working on offering DRM-free tracks on iTunes, and those that are not available in such a format are only so because of requirements from their respective music publishers, not Apple. However, the iPod does remain a closed device incapable of legally playing back music tracks that do not come from iTunes.