Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday announced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors and stifles innovation. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that Apple has monopoly power in the smartphone market and uses its control over the iPhone to “engage in a broad, sustained, and illegal course of conduct.” The lawsuit — which was also filed with 16 state attorneys general — is the latest example of the Justice Department’s approach to aggressive enforcement of federal antitrust law that...

Parler CEO John Matze has responded to Amazon kicking the platform off their hosting services, calling it a “coordinated attack.” On Saturday, Amazon kicked Parler off their webhosting service, meaning the platform will be offline until they find a new host. The ban goes into effect on Sunday, effectively shutting down the platform that conservatives have flocked to since the big tech giants began banning conservatives. In a post on Parler, Matze wrote that “Sunday (tomorrow) at midnight Amazon will be shutting off all of our servers in an attempt to completely remove free speech off the internet. There is...

“A federal jury handed Apple a win in a long-running antitrust case on Tuesday, rejecting plaintiffs’ claims that the company had sidelined competitors and hiked up prices during the iPod’s heyday,” Julia Love reports for The Mercury News. “After just a few hours of deliberations, the eight-member jury sided with Apple that iTunes 7.0 was a meaningful improvement over previous versions of the software, rather than a plot to hobble rivals,” Love reports. “The verdict defuses a case that could have cost Apple as much as $1 billion.” “The trial was full of legal drama, including an eleventh-hour search for...

"Always controversial, Julian Assange gave an interview in London, where he’s exiled in the Ecuadorian embassy, where he lambasted Hillary Clinton, who he called a “threat” to the resolution of his issues. Beyond delving on Hillary’s relationship with Google, Assange also said the search giant should be broken up by regulators due to its dominant position. Assange also spoke of a secret trove of Bank of America BAC +0.5% data he threatened to release three years ago, and of course touched on the situations of Edward Snowden, who’s pursuit by the U.S. government was larger than Osama Bin Laden’s, and...

(Reuters) Oakland, CA — A software update for Apple Inc's iPod music player was not a product improvement, but was intended to improperly raise costs for consumers who wanted to switch to newer devices, an attorney for Apple customers said in court. Closing arguments were delivered on Monday in an Oakland, California, federal courtroom in an antitrust trial that has cast fresh scrutiny on Apple's onetime virtual domination of the digital music market. The plaintiffs, a group of individuals and businesses who purchased iPods from 2006 to 2009, are seeking about $350 million in damages from Apple for unfairly blocking...

A former iTunes engineer testified in a federal antitrust case against Apple Friday that he worked on a project “intended to block 100% of non-iTunes clients” and “keep out third-party players” that competed with Apple’s iPod. Plaintiffs subpoenaed the engineer, Rod Schultz, to show that Apple tried to suppress rivals to iTunes and iPods. They argue that Apple’s anticompetitive actions drove up the prices for iPods from 2006 to 2009; they’re seeking $350 million in damages, which could be tripled under antitrust laws. . . Apple argues – and Schultz agreed in court Friday – that it released many improvements...

The primary job of the Solicitor General’s office is to argue cases before the Supreme Court. Why is it taking Amazon’s side on this appeal? Here’s a surprise. The e-book antitrust trial that went so badly against Apple two years ago is headed to an appeals court Monday and there’s a new name on the docket. Arguing for the U.S., alongside the lawyers for the antitrust division who handled the trial, will be Malcom Stewart, one of the biggest guns in the office of the U.S. Solicitor General. For the Solicitor General’s office to argue a case at this level...

<p>The antitrust lawsuit against Apple is on its last legs after a federal judge dismissed the plaintiffs' last remaining witness.</p> <p>Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Monday she was "concerned" and "troubled" by the remaining plaintiffs' witness in the class action case.</p>

<p>OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — In an unusual legal twist, a federal judge decided Monday that a billion-dollar, class-action lawsuit over Apple's iPods should continue, even though she also disqualified the last remaining plaintiff named in a case that has been on trial since last week.</p>