If you own an iPod, then you can sue Apple

If you are one of the millions of those who purchased an iPod between September 12, 2006 and March 31, 2009, you may receive quite a shocking email.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The email states that you are enlisted in a class-action lawsuit against the Apple company, though you can recuse yourself. The lawsuit was filed by a customer in January 2005 and was started by the creation of the music service Harmony. In 2004, the company RealNetworks created Harmony as a digital rights management translation service. It allowed one to play songs that were downloaded from the RealPlayer music store on Apple's iPod.

However, songs must be loaded on iTunes to be played on an Apple device, as any iPod user knows. That is because Apple created an iPod firmware update, which blocked Harmony and other music services from uploading songs to the iPod. The customer, who filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accused the company of unfairly blocking competition, a sort of monopoly.

The Distric Court for the Northern District of California gave the lawsuit class-action status in November 2011. The website ipodlawsuit.com explains:

"The lawsuit claims that Apple violated federal and state laws by issuing software updates in 2006 for its iPod that prevented iPods from playing songs not purchases on iTunes. The lawsuit claims that the software updates caused iPod prices to be higher than they otherwise would have been."

The "class-action status" of this case means that if you own an first through fourth generation Nanos, second and third generation Touches, first through third generation Shuffles, a fifth generation classic iPod, or the special edition U2 iPod, then you're automatically included in the lawsuit. Official notices have began going out this week, although you can request to be excused from the case. But if one does this, then they will not be given any type of "recovery" that may be rewarded.

As of now, there is no money involved as no actual settlement or reward has been determined.

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