DVD Jon responds to Apple's anti-trust case

DVD Jon's doubleTwist ad on the side of the San Francisco Apple Store seems to have ruffled feathers over at Cupertino
DVD Jon's doubleTwist ad on the side of the San Francisco Apple Store seems to have ruffled feathers over at Cupertino

'DVD' Jon Lech Johansen has been having a few more run-ins with Apple this month over his doubleTwist application, posting a subpoena he's received from the Cupertino giant on his blog.

DoubleTwist is an iTunes style media player, described as "an attempt to open up 200 gadgets and obsessively test every single one of them with doubleTwist while sending stuff to each other and to our friends and families around the world."

Jon and his team created doubleTwist simply "because we were disappointed by the quality of software applications offered by the major device manufacturers" and they wanted to "create a unifying media platform that connects consumers with all their media and all their devices, regardless of whether they are online or offline."

You can see the latest subpoena from Apple over on Jon's blog, which basically states that Apple wants to obtain all documents DVD Jon has relevant to the case surrounding the legality of the iPod/iTunes ecosystem.

doubleTwist partners with INQ

TechRadar contacted Jon for comment on these latest legal shenanigans from Apple's lawyers. Jon merely reiterated what his position has always been, while not missing the opportunity to plug doubleTwist's latest partnership with INQ mobile, telling us that:

"Consumers expect to be able to enjoy their music and videos on any device just like they can play a DVD on any DVD player and a CD on any CD player.

"With doubleTwist we are helping users enjoy their media on any device, and we'll be shipping our software with INQ phones in the fall to make the sync process as seamless as possible for end users."

Documents requested

You can see the Apple Antitrust Subpoena in its entirety online, which requests the following documents from DVD Jon:

1. All communications with Apple concerning your efforts to make iPod inter-operable with digital audio and/or video recordings purchased from online stores other than the iTunes Store and/or your efforts to make digital audio and/or video recordings purchased from iTunes Store inter-operable with portable digital media players other than iPod, including, but not limited to, your efforts to circumvent and/or reverse engineer FairPlay.

2. All communication with Apple concerning the licensing of FairPlay.

3. All documents and communications concerning Apple's attempts to prevent your efforts to circumvent or reverse engineer FairPlay.

DVD jon posts apple sub-poena on his blog

For further background, you can read more about Jon's last headline-grabbling Apple-baiting antics from back in June.

Adam Hartley