iTunes: Don't Leave Home With Them

BadDoggie writes "Politech is reporting that your 'ownership' of music purchased from Apple's iTunes isn't what everyone considers ownership. According to the license, 'Apple may use technologies to verify' that you have not 'use[d] or attempt[d] to use the service from outside of the [United States]'. This includes Canada. Apple's 'technologies' delete the bought-and-paid-for files with no refund and no replacement when & if you leave the U.S." Update: 07/25 16:23 GMT by P : The post to Politech says the songs would "disappear," not be deleted; from the context, it seems they were merely unplayable, not deleted. Update: 07/25 21:34 GMT by M : Apple has contacted the guy, and is apparently making him happy. However, the question remains: Apple definitely doesn't want people buying new songs from outside the U.S., but do they intend to generally permit foreign users to reauthorize (in effect, retain access to) the songs they have already purchased? Apple's policy is very unclear on that point.

Comments

Ah well...

[kmak]

It's always the fine print.. I thought you were different, Apple!

Re:Wow! Canada is *outside* the US!

[cappadocius]

Re:prescription drug research: There's a lot of that going on up here because of our more generous tax credits for drug R&D, as well as lower costs, which translates into more bang for every research dollar. Remember, applied drug research is conducted by private enterprise, not government.

Drug research is conducted by companies for the purpose of making profits on drug sales. The amount of profit has to be high enough to justify the research costs.

In the U.S. drug prices are not regulated, so the drug company will charge whatever they need to in order to get an acceptable level of return on their capital. In Canada, drug prices are artificially low, so that drug companies would not get the acceptable return on their capital if they had to sell at Canadian prices only.

Fortunately, the drug companies make their returns on the American market. They then sell to Canada because of the principle of marginal utility.

The result is that American consumers bear most of the cost of R&D. Without the price-control free American market, the drugs that Canada enjoys (and even ones they develop) would not be profitable enough to develop in the first place.

If it were not for the US, there would either be far fewer prescription drugs, or Canada would have to pay more for its prescription drugs. That is what the above poster refers to.

I do not know enough about the North American military-industrial complex to know if the same principle applies with defense spending.