Apple is currently defending itself against a class action antitrust suit, which claims that the tech titan banned consumers from accessing music that's released by competing audio companies, leading to inflated iPod prices.

By banning songs from other music vendors and forcing consumers to purchase songs only from the iTunes store, the plaintiffs claimed that the electronics giant not only affected the business of other music players, but it also led to the increase in the prices of their iPods.

They are looking to Apple's FairPlay Digital Rights Management or DRM as the cause.

According to the plaintiff, FairPlay prevents iTunes music from being played on other music players, prevents other companies from selling music to Apple consumers, and prevents other companies from reverse engineer FairPlay to make themselves more accessible. The system also deletes music it deemed unauthorized within their own DRM.

Eddy Cue, Apple iTunes Chief, testified on Thursday in Oakland, California to explain the policies of Apple's FairPlay DRM software and refuted the allegations being made against them.

Cue explained that closing off their products was not meant to limit consumers and was not the cause of the increased iPod prices. He said that Apple did not agree with the DRM, but the company needed to create its own FairPlay DRM software to ensure the security of their system. This was also the only way for the company to make deals with major record labels and to avail of high quality and licensed music.

He also said that the FairPlay DRM prevents them from being hacked by sealing all the contents within their system.

He explained that they did plan to release the FairPlay to other companies, but it wasn't possible due to technical issues and they couldn't find a way to make it work reliably.

The case has come to the point that even the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs will be appearing in court, however, by means of a taped deposition, according to CNET.