BluWiki operator takes Apple to court over DMCA claim

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 28 April 2009 09:43

Business IT - Technology

Apple is being sued by OdioWorks, the operator of a wiki service, which claims the iPod and iPhone maker improperly asserted rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The allegedly "baseless" claim by Apple led to the removal of pages hosted by OdioWorks.

A section of the BluWiki web site operated by OdioWorks was used to discuss issues of software interoperability with iPods and iPhones.

In November 2008, Apple's representative demanded the removal of the so-called "iTunesDB [iTunes database] Pages," threatening legal action if OdioWorks did not comply.

OdioWorks has now turned the tables with a court action seeking "declaratory and injunctive relief" from Apple's demand.

The suit was filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and San Francisco-based Keker & Van Nest on behalf of OdioWorks.

OdioWorks' filing states that "The iTunesDB Pages appear to relate to an effort by hobbyists to reverse engineer certain aspects of recent models of iPod and iPhone digital media players in order to enable them to interoperate with software other than Apple's own iTunes software."

Although information contained in the iTunes database is stored in plain text, a hash value is calculated by the iTunes software, and an incorrect hash will result in an iPod or iPhone treating the database as if it was empty.

Is the hash a bona fide access control, or is Apple infringing US citizens' free speech rights? Please read on.