The Apple-Bluwiki lawsuit: Apple withdraws legal threats against Bluwiki

appleAnnouncing the latest development regarding the Apple-Bluwiki lawsuit, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Bluwiki's legal representation, said on Wednesday that Apple has withdrawn its legal threats about certain content that supposedly covered iTunes database exploration by the public wiki hosting site.

The threats sent last year pertained to the anonymously authored pages on the free and open Bluwiki site, whereby users explained the process of syncing media with iPods and iPhones without the use of Apple's iTunes software.

Apple's threats of a legal action against Bluwiki prompted the Web site to fire back with a return litigation. While Bluwiki removed the contentious pages that supposedly hosted a wiki for iTunesDB - a project concerning iTunes' database file system and creation of third-party software for replication -, the site's operator sought the services of the EFF and San Francisco-based law firm Keker & Van Nest to file a lawsuit against Apple, in order to defend the free speech rights of Bluwiki's owner and its users.

However, with Apple deciding to withdrawal of its copyright infringement complaints against Bluwiki, the EFF has confirmed the dismissal of its counter-lawsuit against Apple.

Commenting on the proceedings, OdioWorks' founder, Sam Odio, said: "I'm very relieved the whole ordeal is over. It was a hard decision to stand up for free speech instead of bowing to Apple's demands."