Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs will be brought in from his medical leave to answer questions from lawyers about iTunes.
The antitrust case was brought by a group of consumers accusing the company of creating a music-download monopoly.
US Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd, based in San Jose, California, ruled that lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit may question Jobs for a total of two hours.
Jobs has unique, non-repetitive, first-hand knowledge about Apple’s software updates
In the class-action lawsuit, a group of consumers say Apple created a music-downloading monopoly with its iPod player and iTunes store. At issue is a piece of software called Fairplay that allowed only music bought on iTunes to be played on the iPod, according to the complaint.
One competitor, RealNetworks, responded in 2004 by introducing a new technology that would allow customers to play music downloaded from its site on their iPods. But Apple quickly announced a software upgrade to iTunes that once more blocked music from RealNetworks, the complaint charges.
The plaintiffs argued in a court filing late last year that Apple failed to provide specific examples of how a deposition of Jobs would constitute “undue hardship.”
Jobs has unique knowledge
In his ruling, Lloyd wrote that Jobs has “unique, non-repetitive, first-hand knowledge about Apple’s software updates in October 2004 that rendered the RealNetworks’s digital music files once again inoperable with iPods.”
Apple could appeal the ruling to a district judge, but it would likely have to make a case that the magistrate “made a big mistake,” said Professor David Levine at University of California Hastings College of the Law.
A company spokeswoman declined to comment, while attorneys for the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment.
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