Apple deleted music from users’ iPods without their knowledge

A US antitrust suit against Apple has unearthed something pretty disturbing: The Cupertino-based giant deleted music from iPods if it was purchased from an Apple rival. In a case that has Steve Jobs’ posthumously testifying via emails Apple appears to be backed against the wall.

It is claimed that Apple scanned for music purchased from rival services such as Amazon and forced users to delete all music from their iPods between 2007 and 2009.

The jury heard from attorneys representing the plaintiffs in antitrust class-action lawsuit against Apple for abuse that the company scanned for music not bought from iTunes, and forced a factory reset of the iPod if any was detected.

“You guys decided to give them the worst possible experience and blow up” a user’s iPod music, attorney Patrick Coughlin told the US District Court in Oakland, California.

Users who tried to sync back their music and update an iPod with from Amazon or 7 Digital were told there was an error with their iPod. This error could only be solved with a factory restore through iTunes, an action that completely wiped the iPod.

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Coughlin explained that Apple decided not to tell users that restoring the iPod from iTunes would not restore music from rival services.

Apple security director Augustin Farrugia argued in court that the music was deleted for security reasons and that hackers including Jon Lech Johansen also known as “DVD Jon” and software such as the digital rights management removal tool Requiem had made Apple “very paranoid.”

“The system was totally hacked,” said Farrugia and that the music was deleted for security reasons. He added that “we don’t need to give users too much information” because “we don’t want to confuse users.”

An email sent by Steve Jobs was exhibited by Apple software head Eddy Cue to support Apple’s argument. The email read “Someone is breaking into our house”.

Apple has declined to comment.