Another goofy lawsuit

A man is suing Apple because songs bought from the iTunes music store can't be played on portable players other than the iPod.

The suit was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court in San Jose. One antitrust expert called it a long shot, but Californian Thomas Slattery is hoping for unspecified damages for being "forced" to buy an iPod, one of the most successful electronics products in years.

The key to such a lawsuit would be convincing a court that a single product brand like iTunes is a market in itself separate from the rest of the online music market, according to Ernest Gellhorn, an antitrust law professor at George Mason University.

Um, OK. Forced to buy an iPod? Did someone hold a gun to his head and force him to buy the 99 cent songs in the first place?

And does Mr. Slattery know how to burn an audio CD, which enables you to play those songs on any number of portable players?

This is just plain silly. More here.