14 DAY TRIAL // A motion filed by the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and CNN could allow for the two-hour video deposition of Steve Jobs in the iPod antitrust case to be broadcast, in what would undoubtedly delight Apple fans worldwide.
Die-hard Apple fans everywhere have all but devoured every second of every piece of footage capturing Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple Inc. There’s not a single Steve Jobs video out there that hasn’t been documented and dissected, especially after the man’s death.
Never-before-seen
Whenever the phrase “never-before-seen” is used in conjunction with Steve Jobs, you’re bound to get some traffic. Undoubtedly, that’s what AP, Bloomberg, and CNN were thinking when they kindly asked the Court to allow them to show the video deposition featuring Steve Jobs defending Apple in a decade-old antitrust case involving iPods and iTunes. The footage, if aired, will reportedly show Jobs six months before his death.
Attorney Thomas Burke, representing all three media outlets, writes in today’s filing, “Given the substantial public interest in the rare posthumous appearance of Steve Jobs in this trial, there simply is no interest that justifies restricting the public’s access to his video deposition.”
Despite the video being considered a regular testimony – making it impossible to air – Judge Rogers reportedly did not “seal” the evidence, which leaves the option of broadcasting it open to discussion, reports CNet.
A little background
In case you’re late to the antitrust iPod party, the case in question dates back to 2005, when Apple is said to have engaged in unfair practices locking customers to its iPod and iTunes platforms, while also intentionally deleting songs from iPods via a firmware update at one point.
Real Networks was attempting to capitalize on Apple’s iPod by allowing customers to bypass iTunes and move songs back and forth on their players and computers.
Apple executives Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller, along with a security chief, have all testified in the case, singing the same tune: that Real Networks had essentially hacked the iPod. Steve Jobs said the same thing in the video deposition mentioned earlier.
So far, only a small portion of the deposition has been shown to the Court. At one point, Jobs can be heard (and seen) explaining that “There are lots of hackers trying to hack into these things so that they can do things that would put us in noncompliance with the contracts we have with the music companies.” As such, Jobs said, Apple’s hands were tied and simply had to treat Real Networks as hackers.
