Slashdot Mirror
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.
All this is saying is that you may not use the iTunes service outside the US. This is likely not of their own choice, but because of agreements with the record labels that restrict them to distribution in the US.
Furthermore, it says nothing like, "Apple's 'technologies' delete the bought-and-paid-for files with no refund and no replacement when & if you leave the U.S." You're welcome to listen to your music anywhere you please. Read in the proper context, "Apple may use technologies to verify such compliance," obviously means that if Apple detects you using the iTunes service from outside the US, they'll stop you. Is that so harsh?
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
According to this article: "Canada will be added to the Apple system when the CRIA completes its negotiations in the fall"
CRIA = Canadian Recording Industry Association.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
The author of the article claims he reinstalled his powerbook. And tried to redownload his purchased songs after changing his address permantly on both his credit card and iTunes to an outside US address.
Well that doesn't say apple will suddenly disable all your music files if you step out of US soil for say a week or a month.
Apple'sn policies clearly state that you may only purchase songs in the US.
The guy that complains about Apple's restrictice licenses not only USED TO WORK FOR MICROSOFT, he also developed MusicDirect.com, a direct competitor to the iTunes Store. (Read it yourself on his Home page.
As the french say: honi soit qui mal y pense. ("shamed be he who thinks evil of it")
um... iTunes allows you to burn your files to CD, all, even 'officially' downloaded ones. so jsut buy, burn and delete. if you want it back DRM free, rip it to MP3, you can do that through iTunes quite easily.
I want 2D games back.
You don't need to detour that way, as you can burn the iTunes songs on CDs. If you rip the CDs again, the resultings files aren't protected anymore by DRM.
Many unsigned musicians provide free downloads of their music on their websites as a way to attract more fans. Here's some from my friend Oliver Brown for example. Many such musicians, while relatively unknown, are as good as any major label band and certainly an improvement over the pablum they serve up on ClearChannel.
You can find many more examples in my new article:
- Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads
The article also explores some of the historical and legal issues behind copyright, and suggests steps the file traders can take to make file sharing legal.If you're a musician who offers downloads of your music, I can link to your band's website from the article if you give my article a reciprocal link. Please follow the instructions given here
Request your free CD of my piano music.
...and by "it" I mean he's not telling the whole truth.
I have iTMS files on my powerbook. I travel internationally at least once a month, and I have *never* experienced a problem. Once the files are on your HD, they play just as they normally would if you were right at "home"
I have a nasty feeling this is some FUD, clear and simple. After all, this isn't an "article" this was an email.
Sigh.
Blocklevel: Practical Information Architecture
I didn't think the blurb could be exactly correct. When i go to iTunes (I'm using a Swedish IP) the message I get says that I won't be able to purchase music unless my billing address is in the United States. So it wouldn't make sense for them to let me buy it with a stateside billing address then delete it when I download it, now would it?
It's damnably stupid to have such Mickey Mouse restrictions in the first place, but you know the record companies must have insisted on language to that effect if they were to do business at all.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
He tried to reauthorize the songs after his billing address has changed to outside the US. If you have a US address, you're fine, no matter where your computer sits. How do I know? I studied in Ireland during the last school year, and I downloaded a number of songs from iTMS, using my US-based credit card with my US-based address.
The moral? The license agreement says you aren't to export the songs. This has nothing to do with DRM - it would still be a breach of contract (thus revoking your license to use the songs) to export the songs even if iTMS was giving you straight MP3s.
This stupid law (DVD region) is actually not enforceable in Europe. More and more DVD players out there are multi-zone by default, in the store.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Why don't you check out emusic.com? They give you plain old mp3s and rely on your sense of ethics and existing copyright laws to keep you from infringing. Not only that emusic.com has a working Linux client (sorry, it is not free software), but the client is only needed for downloading. Once you have the mp3, you're set. I realize that some people consider their quality and/or selection to be limited, but it's certainly a value when you consider that you get unlimited downloads with your monthly subscription price.
I do not have a signature
You need some true analogue bandpass filtering to remove the artefacts, and ideally it wants to be implemented using instrumentation-grade op-amps and powered from a linear regulator {as opposed to a switched mode supply as used in a computer} or even rechargeable batteries. Alternatively, use a pentode as a high-gain preamp to give you several volts of headroom, passive filtering {with its inherent negative dB gain} and a triode to match the impedance back to what the line input is expecting.
If you haven't got all the kit needed to do that, try buffering via tape, which has an inherent bandpass characteristic. If your deck has a special mode for recording from FM stereo, engage that, and any noise reduction you can find. Set the level to match your favourite high-bias {chrome or metal} tape, with the peaks reaching as high as they did on your test recordings.
If the original recording from soundcard to soundcard sounded noticeably poorer than tape, chances are that soundcard-to-tape-to-soundcard will sound about as good as tape.
Has anyone else noticed, though, that LINE IN jacks are becoming an endangered species?
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
I am in Germany/Switzerland as well. And last I remember the parent poster was right. Sure they can say you want to do it. But DVD players come in all shapes and sizes. Popular are the ones without region encoding, like the one sitting in front of me...
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
U.S. SALES ONLY
Purchases from the iTunes Music Store are available only in the United States and are not available in any other location. You agree not to use or attempt to use the service from outside of the available territory. Apple may use technologies to verify such compliance. (Emphasis mine)
Yeah, that emphasized part spells it all out.
They can verify that you don't use the service from outside the US. That has little to do with using the songs outside the US. As long as I live in the US, and only use the serivce from within the US, what have I got to worry about? Playing back the songs I've purchased does not invlolve using the service at all.
Um....
Me to?
I am going to go with, "My iTunes purchased music still
works even though I am in the UK now."
And "I have actually purchased entire albums while in the UK"
It never says the files were deleted. It just says the information that authorized his computer to play those files he purchased was lost during the reinstall and because he moved out of the US he was not able to get the authorization rights for said files. They were not deleted.
Hmmm. I run Gentoo Linux and initially had some problems getting the emusic client to connect, so I'm aware that's it's not all roses... but a couple of emails to tech support later the problem was solved (by my simply deleting some of the files in /usr/lib/emusic I think). Between the fact that they have any sort of Linux support, that the files you download are NOT in a proprietary, DRMed format, and that you have a 50 song trial period (if it's not working, you gave it the old college try and didn't lose anything but some time), I think emusic.com makes a very likely candidate for an online music service for those of us who have concerns (either technical or ideological) with Apple or buy.com's services.
I do not have a signature
Dang, there goes my chance to moderate :(
Get a "disposable" MasterCard from webcertificate.com. You can use any other current credit card to purchase the card. (There is, of course, a service fee associated with it.) But the card can be associated with any address you wish, including a US address (just make sure the city/state/zip association is a valid one; other information can be bogus).
This was originally billed as a way for any international user with a credit card to purchase music from the iTunes Music Store. However, it appears that this method could be used to just get yourself a credit card number that's associated with a US billing address for the purposes of associating it with your AppleID. See webcertificate.com's faq for more info.
In sum:
iTunes Music Store does not "check" to see where you are via IP address, or any other network method.
Music you own is never "deleted".
The only reason this user encountered the issue is because he had to reinstall his entire OS, and reauthorize the computer with a credit card whose billing address had since been changed to a non-US address - this didn't specifically disallow him from playing his purchased music; rather, it didn't allow him to REauthorize the computer in order to play the purchased music. As others have said, this seems to be more of a unique situation/accident than intentional on Apple's part (notwithstanding the valid legal considerations Apple has).
Music you burn to CD from iTunes Music Store is yours to keep - FOREVER. No matter where you move. You DO own the music you buy from iTunes Music Store. (Unlike other sites).
As soon as international licensing arrangements are worked out, more and more countries will have iTunes Music Store available.
Apple did much better than anyone else with keeping broad rights with the user/customer, where they belong.
And, finally, a letter from the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA: