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207 Comments
- inactive, on 10/17/2008, -17/+109k. from now on sue any company who creates a popular product that sells millions.
- mlerner, on 10/18/2008, -17/+69The only monopoly they have is the brainwashing, I don't know what they do but Apple could make an actual brick for $199 and everyone would buy it.
- AndrewDB, on 10/18/2008, -6/+58Luxwho?
- VideoGameMatt, on 10/18/2008, -6/+47I don't understand how Apple can be considered a monopoly with MP3 players when every electronics company has their own MP3 players
- Thorpe, on 10/18/2008, -3/+43I'd rather have my music DRM-free.
- chillypacman, on 10/18/2008, -7/+44Needlessly expensive, extremely restrictive but glossy.
- MofoVideo, on 10/18/2008, -7/+44You have to ask yourself two questions....
1.Is there Competition?
and
2. Can there be Competition?
If you answer yes to either of them you dont have a monopoly. - turpenine, on 10/18/2008, -2/+27nintendo... you are suing nintendo.
- DotNetWill, on 10/17/2008, -8/+31A peek what the PC market would be like if Apple were the dominant player?
- ydt89, on 10/18/2008, -5/+25It's called an iPod Touch. Half the functionality, twice the price!
- Chairboy, on 10/18/2008, -6/+26Wait, there's an Apple iBrick?! WHERE CAN I GET ONE!??!?!??!!!
- supersteve, on 10/18/2008, -9/+28how retarded is this company?
- chilispace, on 10/18/2008, -1/+19Isn't Apple selling AAC player that supports MP3? ;)
- GibsonSG91, on 10/18/2008, -0/+18What?
- inactive, on 10/18/2008, -2/+20You can't sue a company for BEING A MONOPOLY !!
You can only sue for monopolistic practices.
Why the ***** can't people get that through their skulls by now?
If you dont get it, than STFU already! - binky79, on 10/18/2008, -5/+22How have they monopolized the MP3 market? They've never sold a single MP3.
- michaelrsa, on 10/18/2008, -8/+24now yer catchin' on. We could all learn a thing or to from this case and from the EU suing Microsoft.
- imnojezus, on 10/18/2008, -2/+17Apple sells a music player and integrates a distribution channel for content on that player... but it's not the only distribution channel available (even for the iPod), and it's not the only player available. I don't see how there's a case against iTunes anymore than there'd be a case against Xbox Live.
Luxpro is a company with a history of ripping off Apple's design and branding rather than creating their own product. What I see here is a lame attempt to get more money for nothing. - WhoDoneIt, on 10/18/2008, -6/+20Good luck company I've never heard of before.
- Tripper44, on 10/18/2008, -3/+15This is why digg should have an IQ test on user signup :)
- rand0mm0nkey, on 10/18/2008, -2/+14There are plenty of places to buy mp3s, and there are hundreds if not thousands of other mp3 players out there. More and more artists are allowing you to download from their own sites. Having other viable options does not look like a monopoly to me.
- stevenjchang, on 10/18/2008, -4/+16lol HOW MANY PEOPLE HERE READ THE ARTICLE???? - all the way through?
AND HOW MANY JUST POSTED BASED ON THE title???
cuz non of your comments relate to the article, just title.
luxpro tried to copy apple, and apple tried to take out luxpro altogether, they are not suing about apple being popular, they're pissed apple tried to take out and eliminate them as a company altogether and they feel that is BS - inactive, on 10/18/2008, -4/+15Yeah, like Microsoft.
- chaoswings, on 10/18/2008, -6/+17Monopoly can also mean excessive control or possession over something. In this case the market. Apple does not have to be the only seller to be a monopoly just beating out the rest by a large margin..which it is currently doing.
I'm not agreeing with what this company is doing though. Just pointing out that Apple controls the market as they claim...I just don't think they should have the right to sue them over that, it's what happens when a company releases a superior product and has better marketing skills. It's like suing me because I make a better pizza then you do..it's retarded. - inactive, on 10/18/2008, -3/+14This article leaves out some vital details. The following, from an ITExaminer article, makes it sound like they just might have a legitimate claim:
"According to court information, while Apple's over-reaching injunctions were on appeal, Apple sent warning letters to other companies doing business with Luxpro, demanding that they cease. One such company was Intertan, a subsidiary of US-based consumer electronics giant Circuit City, which was told to drop Luxpro's MP3 players from its retail shelves.
This pressure caused Intertan to destroy 4,500 Luxpro players and stop placing orders with the company. Radio Shack and Best Buy also stoped doing business with Luxpro. Similar demands were sent to Singapore's Orchard Company, Japan's Kaga Electronics, and Germany's Web Worker, who put them in the rubbish bin. Asustek and Synnex were told by Apple to pressure Luxpro's distributors, including Carrefour, ET Mall, EUPA, and 3C."
http://www.itexaminer.com/apple-accused-of-being-m ... - roxgod666, on 10/18/2008, -1/+12iPod are classified in the mp3 market. The first time i read this i thought it was about itunes and their DRM crap in which your comment would be true.
- kolyana, on 10/18/2008, -1/+11Did you even read the article?
- Tddupre, on 10/18/2008, -1/+11swing and a miss
- puter, on 10/18/2008, -0/+10um, you can't sue for being a monopoly
you can sue for monopolistic practices.
That's why microsoft got sued, they did things to keep the competition from succeeding. Apple will win because they haven't tried to repress the competition, they've simply made a better product than the competition. - inactive, on 10/18/2008, -4/+14Apple patented the design of the Ipod Shuffle, if any company has an MP3 with a similar design that design Apple has every right to sue them to change it. That's not monopolistic behavior.
Apple is not monopolizing the MP3 market either, there are many other MP3 players and companies that sell MP3's, Windows for example...
Just because another company is successful and its success and creativity is interfering with other companies sales does not make it a monopoly. - inactive, on 10/18/2008, -3/+13DRM-free music is indeed the way to go, but Apple does in fact sell some DRM-free music on the iTunes store. It's called iTunes Plus, and the were the first major online DRMed music store to offer DRM-free music. However, most of the major labels (except EMI) are not allowing Apple to sell their music without DRM, because they don't like the power iTunes currently wields when negotiating. That's why other stores such as Amazon MP3 have larger DRM-free selections than Apple.
- Chairboy, on 10/18/2008, -0/+10I'll take three!
- weebit, on 10/18/2008, -2/+11They wont win... Hopefully the Courts will throw it out. They are just mad that Apple put out a good mp3 player, and they didn't. If most of these companies would listen to their customers, they could have good products too. Apple just guessed the right stuff.
- Senturion, on 10/18/2008, -3/+12Why is it so many people don't know what the word monopoly means?
Having a dominant market position is not a monopoly. - foomanchu07, on 10/17/2008, -12/+20When did the Taiwanese starting "making" MP3s.
- deadnoob, on 10/18/2008, -3/+11http://yuyulaw.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2 ...
- subtle, on 10/18/2008, -2/+10"Them Taiwanese" make pretty much everything Cupertino puts its little apple-with-a-bite-missing logo on, krusty.
- Maxamegalon2000, on 10/18/2008, -0/+8I'll take twelve!
- chudgoo, on 10/18/2008, -1/+9Apple doesn't own the Mpeg Layer3 standard, they license its use from Fraunhofer.
Just like everyone else... - monkeyrun, on 10/18/2008, -2/+101) Rip off an Apple product.
2) Wait for Apple to sue you.
3) File a counter suit.
4) ....!?!?
5) Profit !?
lol, stupid Taiwan company. - StuartGibson, on 06/14/2009, -3/+10What has fairplay got to do with the MP3 market? I assume you're implying that by making their songs available with fairplay they are leveraging their position as the biggest music retailer in the US to control the market - you have to buy an iPod if you want to buy from the iTunes store?
Still doesn't make it a monopoly. There are plenty of other places to buy music that can play on iPods as well as other portable music players. The only monopoly they have is their store selling music that plays on their machines. It would be like ASDA suing Tescos because you can only get Tesco brand food in Tescos. There are plenty of alternative places to buy both music and music players and nothing that Apple does prevents other people competing in either of those markets. So unless you want them to sue them on the basis they have a monopoly on their own brand of DRM.. - bobartig, on 10/18/2008, -3/+10Monopolies by themselves are not illegal, its when you use them in a non-competitive fashion that they become illegal.
Basically, an "illegal monopoly" is leveraging the power of their market position to eliminate other players in a non-competitive fashion.
For instance, In the late 90's, Microsoft went to all the major PC manufacturers and told them "We license OEM copies of Windows to you for ~$23/copy. If you start selling computers with Linux/BeOS/Unix installed, we will have to change that to ~$100/copy." Since no major PC mfr could afford a 400% increase in the cost of windows, or to stop selling WIndows, they opted not to sell Linux pre-installed computers.
This excluded competitors from the OS market in NON-competitive ways. That is, the OSes were not compared on the strengths of their price/offerings, they were pre-emptively excluded from the market by pressures from Microsoft due to the leverage they had from their dominant position. This violates some anti-trust laws.
Some other ways of being anticompetitive (which Microsoft has done in the past) are:
- Pricing your solution unsustainably low to force competitors out, then raising prices after they have been eliminated (security and server software)
- Releasing "buggy" drivers and APIs for your competitor's to develop software with, then using better secret "internal" ones that make your software appear faster and more stable. (Office/Productivity products)
So, if Apple went to all the major retailers (Target, Walmart, Amazon etc.) and said that they would charge them a "***** you fee" for carrying other brands of portable music devices, that would probably be illegal for the same reasons.
Like any company with such a dominant market position, Apple has to be careful to ensure that they don't do something that is anti-competitive in terms of the portable music space. - kolyana, on 10/18/2008, -1/+8That's a pretty big thing to leave out.
Too many people here are commenting without reading the article. - silentsteps, on 10/18/2008, -2/+8I'm suing Metallica because they sold more albums than my garage band did.
- flibblesan, on 10/18/2008, -1/+7The article clearly states "Taiwanese MP3 manufacturer Luxpro", no mention of China was made in the article or by foomanchu07.
- knute5, on 10/18/2008, -0/+6Lux-Pro made the kind of iPod knock-offs you'd find on eBay or Craigslist. The one Engadget review I read was "utter crap." If you're Apple, not only does this steal sales but it dilutes the value of your merchandise. They were well within their rights to pursue legal protection. As for the "pressure" they exerted on Lux-Pro's business partners, that remains to be seen. But please, this is NOTHING like MS/Netscape, where MS was found guilty. Not even close.
- DarkLaughingMan, on 10/18/2008, -0/+5But is that Apple supporting them doing it? Or the developers just reverse-engineering it?
- dickybrown, on 10/18/2008, -0/+5"copyright infringement anyone?" I'm fairly certain they aren't infringing on any copyrights. trademarks or something, maybe, but I didn't see anything that looked like it could have been copyrighted
- D0P3M4N, on 10/18/2008, -1/+6This lawsuit is about 8 years too late.
- cadmiumpaint, on 10/18/2008, -2/+7They make a cheap ipod knock off and then sue apple.... "you won't let us copy your products..no fair!!!" who is this nobody company? I think its a stunt to get their name out in to the news.....a screwed up way to generate brand awareness.
If you want to compete with the iPod make a product thats really great. Get some money to advertise and market your product effectively and maybe you'll have a chance. -
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