Ruling Keeps Steve Jobs Deposition out of Public Domain

Steve jobs ipod

The rare Steve Jobs footage taped months before his death in 2011 should be kept away from the public eye, District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled yesterday(via AppleInsider).

You may recall that the video testimony of Steve Jobs was played to the jury multiple times during the iPod antitrust trial. After seeing the footage, media outlets such as CNN filed a motion to gain access to a copy of Jobs’ deposition.

Apple, of course, fought to keep the footage out of the public domain and told the court that if they decided to release the video, the court may set a dangerous precedent for the “release of videotaped testimony from other high-profile witnesses in future cases.”

The judge, however, decided to side with Apple and noted that the category of the video saved it from the public. Had the footage been submitted as evidence, Apple would have been forced to release it to media outlets.

Judge Gonzales Rogers cites a prior case dealing with witness testimony:

Here, the Court agrees with the Eighth Circuit and concludes that the Jobs Deposition is not a judicial record. It was not admitted into evidence as an exhibit. Instead, the Jobs Deposition was merely presented in lieu of live testimony due to the witness’s unavailability, and was and should be treated in the same manner as any other live testimony offered at trial.

Yesterday’s ruling puts an end to a decade-long back and forth over the legality of an iTunes software update that locked customers into the Apple ecosystem. The jury found Apple not guilty of this allegation, saving the company from a possible $1 billion bill.

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