Apple deleted music from rival services

Between 2007 and 2009, Apple is accused of deleting music from peoples iPods from other music services.

The attorneys contend that those users who downloaded music from a rival service—like Real Networks—and tried to sync it with an iPod were met with an error message and instructions to restore the device to factory settings. Once the user followed through, those songs would disappear.



Apple countered that it was just protecting users, telling jurors that the maneuver was a legitimate security measure - and intentionally cryptic so as to not confuse users.

"We don't need to give users too much information," Apple security director Augustin Farrugia testified, according to the New York Journal.

The argument goes that the company was paranoid about protecting iTunes from hackers.

The case dates back to 2004, when Apple released a software update that made tracks bought from competitor RealNetworks inoperable on iPods.