U.S. Supreme Court will hear Apple's appeal of App Store class-action lawsuit

Re:U.S. Supreme Court will hear Apple's appeal of App Store ... by simonh on Monday June 18, 2018 @05:08PM (#17341704)

There is no specific law, or legal precedent disallowing a platform owner from exclusively controlling software distribution for their platform. In fact it’s been going on for a lot longer than the App Store. Several early smartphones before the iPhone were locked down in similar ways. Games console manufacturers and media player vendors often maintained exclusive services software and content distribution right. If n fact since you mention Microsoft, don’t they have an exclusive online store for XBox games? This sort of arrangement has been common practice for decades and never been legally barred that I’m aware of.

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Re:U.S. Supreme Court will hear Apple's appeal of App Store ... by mchahn on Monday June 18, 2018 @09:13PM (#17343016)

> Games console manufacturers and media player vendors often maintained exclusive services software and content distribution right[?]

That must not be true. Atari had to patent a mechanical mechanism that its cartridges used in order to prevent others from developing for their system.

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Re:U.S. Supreme Court will hear Apple's appeal of App Store ... by simonh on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @03:47AM (#17344540)

And doing so was not illegal. That's exactly what I'm talking about - platform owners legally putting in place restrictions to control access to their platform, often because that's the primary way in which they make revenue.

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