Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been ordered by a federal magistrate judge to answer questions in an antitrust dispute dating back to 2005. Bloomberg reports that the case revolves around RealNetworks’ Harmony technology, which promised to allow copy-protected music sold on its online store to be played on iPods.
The technology was introduced in July 2004, and Apple took just five days to announce software updates to render the technology inoperable, saying its was “stunned” that Real had “adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod.” According to U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard R.
Lloyd in San Jose, California, Jobs has been ordered to speak because “The court finds that Jobs has unique, non-repetitive, firsthand knowledge about the issues at the center of the dispute over RealNetworks software.”
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