Legal Tidbits -- Using Copyright Law to Monopolize Aftermarkets

One issue that I find interesting is the use of copyright law as an anticompetive tool to monopolize aftermarkets.

As reported today on internetnews.com, a recent suit brought against Apple claims that ties between Apple's iTunes music download service and its iPod violate the antitrust laws.

Now I love my new iPod, and iTunes is pretty nifty in its own right, but I'm not a big fan of what Apple is doing here, which is essentially creating an incompatibility between the industry standard music format (AAC) and iTunes, such that users can't play iTunes downloaded music on non-iPod digital music players and iPod users must purchase their downloads from iTunes.

To me, the interesting legal issue arises when individuals try to circumvent technological roadblocks like this. In recent cases, companies have tried to use copyright litigation and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention provision as tools to discourage reverse engineering of technology like this to "fix" these intentionally created interoperability problems. The Federal Circuit and the Sixth Circuit have come down on the right side of this issue in recent decisions in Chamberlain v. Skylink and Lexmark v. Static Control Components, interpreting the DMCA in a manner that will prevent its use to restrict legitimate competition in "aftermarket" components.