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ITunes Australia Goes Live
daria42 writes "ITunes Australia has finally gone live, after more than a year of waiting. Apple is holding a press conference in Sydney this morning to officially launch the service to the media, but the store has already opened. Like the Japanese ITunes store, it looks like Sony-BMG is not participating."
Modding down the only people who TRY to RTFA?
The URL is WRONG
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
Simple - each record company is a single company but they operate separate divisions in each region and each division/branch deals with the copyrights in their own country.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/iTunes_M usic_Store_comes_to_Australia/0,2000061733,3921879 8,00.htm
Looks like it's not variable pricing as I thought it might have been. Thus, I hereby retract my "Crikey!"
I'm sure there are numerous world branches of just about every major record label out there. What's stopping Apple from running a global iTunes Music Store?
The record companies. The songs are licensed for sale in one country only. Apple would love to be able to offer their entire catalog to anybody anywhere, but the record companies won't allow that. They have to negotiate completely separate licensing agreements for each country.
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No.. the correct URL for getting music is: http://www.allofmp3.com/. :)
Friends don't let Friends use Internet Explorer.
Knowing that iTunes Australia was launching, I did an interview with AppleTalk Australia that tells a little bit more behind-the-scenes stuff, in case you're interested.
I'm glad this is finally up-and-running. Australia has a great independent music scene (as I spoke more about in previous Slashdot comment).
Australia has no "Fair Use Policy" laws
Howabout Div 3 of Part III of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)? - scroll down to the appropriate point on this page http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/244/to p.htm and have a read as to what is permitted as "fair dealing" under Australian law.
so far there has been no test case
This is just wrong. There have been cases about fair dealing and so forth since the Act was encated. Try this link http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinocgi.cgi/au?m ethod=boolean&rank=on&query=ca1968133%20s40 if you're really interested.
This is the reason TiVO has not been introduced to Australia.
I would suggest that there are several reasons TiVO has not been introduced, such as:
- only 5 free to air channels
- no free cable, encrypted pay TV
- no electronic program guide
- TV stations who persist on not running to time
- different video standard (PAL not NTSC)
It's certainly not the law - which hasn't prevented VCRs from flourishing (albeit they reisde in a somewhat grey area) - but more likely a question of economics.
It is illegal to record any TV show that is not being broadcast live to air
In fact its UNLAWFUL (but not illegal) to record a TV show at all (except in the case of fair dealing, and other exceptions I wont go into now) whether broadcast or not.
But the distiction between unlawful and illegal is an important one. Unlawful means that the TV station or distributor or somebody has to come sue you for infringing upon their copyright. No jail time. Illegal means that somethings is a crime - the copyright holder just has to notify the cops, they can pick you up and you might face jail time (although now is not the time to go into criminal sentencing procedure).
It is also illegal to rip cds to MP3
Again, it's unlawful, but not illegal.
Apple have finally taken the chance, which is good to see.
I would suggest that this is not, in fact, a chance or risk for Apple. Australians are high per-capita purchasers of music. It is guaranteed profit which will also drive the iPod market with a legal source of downloads. Apple has only "waited" so long because the record labels in Australia have been absolute asses to deal with. Sony BMG is still not on board.
Hopefully none of the recording labels will launch a lawsuit
This is the bit that gets me most... it is the labels WHO ARE COOPERATING WITH APPLE TO ALLOW APPLE TO SELL THEIR MUSIC. The labels would be, in effect, SUING THEMSELVES. This will not happen.