Thomas Slattery of California has filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that it is not fair that he has to use an iPod to listen to iTunes songs.

According to the lawsuit, "Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice."

A BBC News article claims that,

"Mr. Slattery called himself an iTunes customer who ‘was also forced to purchase an Apple iPod' if he wanted to take his music with him to listen to."

"Apple has unlawfully bundled, tied, and/or leveraged its monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players, and vice-versa," the lawsuit said.

George Mason University anti-trust law professor, Ernest Gellhorn thinks that Slattery must convince the court that the iTunes brand is its own separate market from the rest of the online music market.

Apple has made no comment regarding the lawsuit.

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