A federal judge dismissed Musi's lawsuit against Apple with prejudice and sanctioned Musi's lawyers for fabricating facts to support their case. Musi, a free iOS music streaming app with tens of millions of downloads, was removed from the App Store in September 2024 after YouTube raised intellectual property complaints.
Musi never licensed music directly. It piped audio through YouTube's infrastructure, displayed its own ads, and charged a one-time $5.99 fee to remove them. When Apple pulled the app, Musi argued the removal violated Apple's Developer Program License Agreement and that YouTube's IP claims were unsubstantiated. The judge disagreed on both counts, finding Apple retains the right to delist apps with or without cause.
The sanctions against Musi's lawyers are the detail worth reading closely. Courts rarely punish counsel for aggressive legal theory, but fabricating facts crosses a different line entirely. The full ruling explains where Musi's legal team manufactured its record, and what that means for any developer who thinks a DPLA gives them leverage over Apple.
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