双语新闻：苹果音乐反垄断案开审 乔布斯“还魂”作证

双语新闻：苹果音乐反垄断案开审 乔布斯“还魂”作证

本周二，10年前的一场苹果垄断案在加利福尼亚州的奥克兰开庭，苹果被指利用iPod系统强迫用户支付更多费用，案件的索赔金额为3.5亿美元。尽管乔布斯已经去世，但在过去的案件中，乔布斯的电子邮件却让他成为了一个重要的证人。

Next month, the company is set to go to trial in the third major antitrust lawsuit it has faced since Mr. Jobs died. His emails will play an important role in the case, as they did in the last two. But lawyers will probably have to work hard to give his statements a positive spin. The potential damages — around $350 million — are a pittance for a company that in its last quarter had an $8.5 billion profit.
　　下个月，苹果公司将出庭受审，这是乔布斯去世以来该公司面临的第三宗大型反垄断诉讼。和之前的两起案件一样，他的电子邮件将在这起案件中起到重要作用。但代理律师可能必须下些功夫，才能用正面的说辞解释乔布斯说过的话。此案的赔偿金可能高达3.5亿美元（约合22亿元人民币），但对于这家上季度盈利85亿美元的公司而言，这笔钱不足挂齿。

Executives are often told by their lawyers to be careful what they put in writing for fear it will end up as evidence in a courtroom. Perhaps Mr. Jobs did not get the memo. His emails in past lawsuits — a mix of blunt litigation threats against his opponents and cheery financial promises for potential business partners — have made him an exceptional witness against his own company, even beyond the grave.
　　律师常常让企业高管注意书面的内容，原因是担心它们最后会成为呈堂证供。或许乔布斯没有收到过律师的提醒。尽管他已经去世，但在过去的案件中，乔布斯的电子邮件却让他成为了一个重要的证人，只是对自己的公司不利——那些邮件中，既有起诉对手的赤裸裸的威胁，也有对潜在商业伙伴欣然许下的财务承诺。

The emails in all these cases present the good and bad of Steve Jobs — charmer and bully, someone who may not always have played by the rules.
　　所有这些案件中涉及的电子邮件，呈现出了乔布斯好的一面和不好的一面——时而颇具魅力，时而横行霸道，而且并不总是按规矩办事。

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The latest case to bring Mr. Jobs’s spirit into a courtroom is set to begin on Tuesday in Oakland, Calif. It is a class action involving older iPods, which played only songs sold in the iTunes Store, or those downloaded from CDs, not music from competing stores. The plaintiffs are consumers who say Apple violated antitrust law because to keep their music, people had to stay with the iPod, and buy higher-priced ones rather than cheaper, alternative music players. Apple has since discontinued this system.
　　最近这起让乔布斯的灵魂走上法庭的案件，定于周二在加州奥克兰开庭。这是一起集体诉讼，涉及版本较老的iPod。它们只能播放iTunes Store销售的音乐，以及从CD上导出的音乐，无法播放从对手的商店购买的音乐。作为原告的消费者称，苹果违反了反垄断法，因为为了保留购买的音乐，人们不得不一直使用iPod，购买价格较高的iPod产品，而非更便宜的其他音乐播放器。苹果已经终止了这一做法。

Mr. Jobs’s emails and videotaped deposition taken before his death, plaintiffs’ lawyers say, will portray him as planning to break a competitor’s product to protect Apple’s grip on digital music.
　　原告律师称，乔布斯的电子邮件，以及他去世前录制的证词视频表明，为了保护苹果对数字音乐的掌控，他打算搞垮竞争对手的一款产品。

“We will present evidence that Apple took action to block its competitors and in the process harmed competition and harmed consumers,” said Bonny Sweeney, the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer.
　　“我们将呈上证据，表明苹果采取了遏制竞争对手的行动，并在此过程中妨碍了竞争，损害了消费者的利益，”首席原告的代理律师邦尼·斯威尼(Bonny Sweeney)说。

Apple declined to comment.
　　苹果拒绝置评。

A few of the emails have already been made public. In one, sent in 2003 to other Apple executives, Mr. Jobs expressed concern about Musicmatch, a software company, opening its own music store.
　　其中几封电子邮件已被公开。2003年，乔布斯在发给苹果其他高管的电子邮件中，表达了对Musicmatch的担忧。这家软件公司当时要启动自己的音乐商店。

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“We need to make sure that when Music Match launches their download music store they cannot use iPod,” he wrote. “Is this going to be an issue?”
　　“我们需要确保Music Match在发布他们的下载音乐商店时，没法用iPod，”他写道。“这会成为问题吗？”

More emails are expected to become public during the trial.
　　预计会有更多电子邮件在周二开始的庭审期间被公之于众。

The case involving the iPod has kicked around various Bay Area federal courts for a decade. It is an amalgam of multiple suits, with over 900 filings from lawyers on both sides.
　　这桩与iPod有关的案子10年来由湾区的多家联邦法院经手。它是多起诉讼结合的产物，双方律师提交的文件数量在900份以上。

The jury will hear from some of Apple’s top executives, including Philip W. Schiller, the head of marketing, and Eddy Cue, who oversees iTunes and Apple’s other online services.
　　陪审团将会听取一些苹果高管的证词，包括营销负责人菲利普·W·席勒(Philip W. Schiller)，以及负责iTunes等苹果在线服务的埃迪·库埃(Eddy Cue)。

And they will probably point out that the price of iPods have gone down over the years, not up, regardless of what Apple did with its software.
　　他们可能将指出，无论苹果对自己的软件做了什么改变，iPod的价格过去几年一直在下降，并没有提高。

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