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Apple's Terms No Longer Allow ITMS Purchases Outside of US
JasonDT writes "I just accepted the new terms of service for iTunes and found that I will no longer be allowed to access US iTunes outside of the United States. This may seem like no big deal but, I am a US citizen living abroad and I regularly purchase and view TV and movies from AppleTV. Not to mention US citizens just traveling abroad. Does anyone know if this has been enforced or have themselves been affected by this?"
Register itunesproxy.com before apple does!!!
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Yes, Canada is still outside the US...for now~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I bet that the poster of this article is exploring his options, after all, he's not allow to purchase his media legally, so perhaps he would be better served by a free alternative?
I am sure Apple did it only to make someone else happy (labels, investors, foreign governments, us government, etc...) however, it's ridiculous to suggest that this will do anything but increase piracy.
Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
not where you were born. When I was an American living and working in Germany, I was subject to the laws of Germany. I couldn't download a browser with more than 40-bit encryption at the time due to export regulations. Yes I was an American citizen, but I wasn't in the united states.
Now, if you are working on behalf of the US government at a diplomatic consulate/mission or in the military, then you may have a gripe, and I believe Apple should do something to work with you. Especially if your billing is to an APO address.
Just because I'm american and we are allowed the freedom of speech inside the US doesn't mean I can have a copy of Mein Kampf in Germany.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
Similarly, Australians traveling overseas cannot access (their money in) the Australian iTunes store. Don't feel special.
No idea, but it's something you don't have to worry about if you get your media from other sources that don't keep on putting up artificial barriers...
Meh, let them keep it. It half full of French anyway....
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
Welcome to the dismantling of the internet. If you have the slightest knowledge of how media cartels work, not just American ones but World wide, then you know it was just a matter of time before market segmentation reared its ugly head onto the web. Google is not exempt either, they've been IP filtering their early days.
As a deployed American soldier (Afghanistan) who has downloaded many songs from Itunes over the last year, I just have to say this change is ridiculous! That is all.
Three days from now?? Thats tomorrow!! ~Peter Griffin
I live in Vietnam and regularly purchase apps for my iPhone which, uh, has gained the ability to work here ;).
I saw the warning too but short of setting up some sort of proxy I have no other options but to try and use it here. Fortunately it works (for now).
This has nothing to do with being an USA citizen and all about where you are geographically located. If you have a credit card registered to a USA address, then you can buy quite happily from the US store (Apple isn't going to know the real story), but not if you have a non-USA address. This policy has been in place since day 1 of the iTunes store, and is in place because of the distribution rights set in place by the record companies, so in reality this is a non-story.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
This policy is not new. It has been around for at least a year. But I live outside the US (and I am a US citizen... not that it matters in this case) and I still regularly purchase and download and watch TV shows and movies on iTunes. In fact, it is the only software that lets me do this. Amazon and other alternatives disable their service outside the US.
Try out Amazon MP3.
It's cheap, DRM-less, and easy. Plus, it runs on Linux just fine (32-bit has packages, force it on 64-bit, use getlibs, and it works fine).
YEARwithoutDRM
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
What do you have to say about Apple's warm and fuzzy user-friendly DRM now?
I say "I just upgraded three tracks from Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack to "Kikujiro" to iTunes Plus", what do you expect me to say? I should refuse to take advantage of the fact that Apple finally got the labels to agree to let them finish removing the cold and prickly DRM from the trackes they're licensing?
And whoever modded you "funny" must be similarly out of touch.
The last time I was presented with the "agreement" for the iTunes store, I pulled up a terminal and ran wc on it. It was 4,931 words long, not including referenced agreements. You can go buy a CD at a store with out signing a contract, much less one nearly 5,000 words long.
It contained all manor of claims of how Apple could unilaterally change the terms for purchased music and required that you "agree to agree" to future terms.
Having taken some contract law courses ( but IANAHPAADL - I am not a highly paid Apple attack dog lawyer), much of it seemed unconscionable. Specifically, consideration from Apple (ability to play already purchased songs, access the store, etc.) seems weak-to-non-existent in light of the fact that it can be arbitrarily revoked according to the terms.
Also, I am generally an Apple fan, but this is one area where I think they are really out of control.
The TOS specifically mentions the annexation of Canada.
It's official people.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
By French, I'll assume you mean freedom.
He could use that service that we never speak about.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
It's cheap, DRM-less, and easy. And it doesn't install a helper application into your browser, just waiting for someone to figure out how to slide an exploit into a ".amz" file.
For Safari under Leopard, to remove that erroneous tagging of ".amz" as "safe" (there's no such thing as a "safe" file), remove the entry from ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DownloadAssessment.plist .
Apple annexed Canada? Just wow. I didn't know that had that much cash on hand.
Well, congrats Steve.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
OT, but your sig is slightly wrong. It should read: "I agree with 90% of the world which are all idiots, you don't, therefore you're biased!"
That is better, but you should take it one step further and translate it into something humans can understand.
Seriously, it needs a diagram accompanying it.
Either they're not checking or the credit card company isn't allowed to disclose the customer's address without a court order, as my canadian card works fine.
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
No, no, it's Russia that wants to annex Alaska.
Fortunately, we have Palin standing on the coast up there keeping a close eye on them.
Shit, when did you guys managed to secede?
EvilCON - Made Famous by
The Zune store?
A friend of mine ordered the MLB.TV video streaming package, then had to spend most of the baseball season in China. After he tried unsuccessfully to use the service, he contacted MLB.TV's tech support, and although 1st layer support was no help, he eventually worked his way up to someone who was able to grant him access.
Obviously, since Apple doesn't own the music, they might be less flexible. Doesn't cost anything other than time to try.
But they can turn on the Address Verification System (AVS). You would have to enter your address into the "billing address" fields. While processing the transaction, they can request that the payment provider verify the address. If it doesn't match, they can reject the payment.
By making those fields mandatory, they'll force you to declare the country of origin of your credit card, and they can act (in)appropriately from there.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
If you have another mac in the USA, enable remote ssh logins into it. (Or really, any server that accepts ssh, but since you fell for the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field, I'll assume you're on a mac, and you know others with macs in the USA).
In terminal,
ssh -D 1080 example.com
In network preferences,
Configure your network settings to use a socks proxy on 127.0.0.1:1080
Now, Safari and iTunes both will be browsing *via* example.com, working around any geolocation features Apple and other companies may be using. This setting is principally only honored by Apple apps; it won't affect Firefox for example (though you can configure Firefox to use a socks proxy).
Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick any two. - RFC 1925
Pessimist!
I prefer to think it half empty of French.
"Three eyes are better than one" -- Lieutenant Columbo
The biggest problem with this is for those of us who are US citizens living in US territories. We use US currency, we pay federal taxes, we get our mail through the US post office, but because we are territories and not part of the Mainland US we get screwed on so many different services. Itunes, Netflix, ebay, try ordering any software with even the smallest bit of encryption on it through Amazon in the territories and see the order fail to go through. try getting digital downloads from most places and they will refuse the order because US territories are considered international destinations and are not eligible for those services. It's very frustrating, to have to find a creative way around this problem, usually I have stuff drop shipped to a friend or family stateside and then mailed down here but that doesn't work for digital stuff.
Made especially funny by the fact that that storefont has never worked in Canada or elsewhere :)
It's official then ... Canadians are now officially stylish but pointless.
I can order CDs, DVDs, you name it, from amazon.com and they will happily ship things to Canada.
I can't buy the same music/shows online due to 'copyright issues'.
Why is it that the physical media is treated differently from the electronic media for the exact same content?
-- the cake is a lie
he apple apologists need to seriously STFU with this "it isn't apple's fault!" nonsense. They're partners. Apple is not some holy child that hath cometh down from the mountain to bestow upon the unwashed masses all that is holy and good.
I'd tell you to a heaping spoonful of STFU yourself, but I think you've done Apple enthusiasts everywhere a service by serving as a quintessential example of knee-jerk Apple Critic. You certainly don't know what you're talking about with regards to how the DRM works, you seem to be ignorant of Apple's actions and stated intentions with regard to said DRM, you seem to have reflexively confused licensing issues with DRM issues, and you seem generally confused about the value and state of other players in the marketplace.
Exhibit A:
"Bought that song on your computer at work? Want to listen to it on your computer at home? Well guess what, charlie, unless you find some obscure bullshit setting in some hidden window in some far off corner of some far off menu in iTunes, $1 more shall go to the Steve."
Anyone who's ever used iTunes on more than a single computer knows there's a simple solution to this problem. It doesn't involve an obscure menu, in fact, iTunes will *prompt* you for the necessary information as soon as you try to play the song.
Exhibit B:
A moments of thought would reveal that the geographic restrictions on purchases have little to do with DRM and everything to do with licensing, since DRM (on music anyway) isn't tied to a region, and isn't the technology used in restricting the purchase at any rate.
Exhibit C:
"Why do you think people don't use amazon?"
They do, actually. Their MP3 store launched a year and a half ago and sell about 10% of what iTunes does. Some estimates place them as the #2 digital retailer:
http://mashable.com/2008/03/26/amazon-mp3-takes-2/
Furthermore, that figure almost certainly represents sales mostly taken from iTunes. Almost every iPod/iTunes user I know has switched.
Exhibit D:
"Or why microsoft's VASTLY superior subscription model is ignored?"
I can see value in a subscription model, I've participated in Rhapsody and Satellite Radio before. But at the end of the day, many people -- apparently more people -- happily choose ownership of their selection of media rather than ongoing rent to access to a broader selection, so it's not particularly clear that it's a vastly superior model.
Overall, it appears that the purpose of your post is really to express some ill-defined anger at Apple as a company or to project a straw-man image of people who buy and enjoy their products.
It certainly isn't to express well-considered criticism of some of the company's practices.
Tweet, tweet.
I just use a VPM [witopia.net] as long as it tunnels out of a US server some times it comes out via Europe though depends on server load.
Now if only someone would tell Palin which coast faces towards Russia...
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Actually, I got the message that iTMS was not to be used from outside of the US months ago (I live in Japan). They said they might check. Thus far, they haven't. I wouldn't worry about it.
Also, Amazon MP3 won't sell to me anymore, although they do for my friends. I had to buy a book for work from the US site and registered my Japanese credit card (my work can only reimburse expenditures made in yen), and then, like magic, Amazon MP3 stopped working. I've even tried making a new account with a different US credit card, and yet Amazon now knows I'm in Japan, but doesn't know that my buddy down the street, who has only ever used his US credit card with the US site, is as well.
I absolutely hate pirating music. I reject it on ethical grounds, and I hate tracks being mis-labeled (I have never entered track names by myself--who are these people who can't spell who are entering ID3 tags on pirated songs???) and having no control over the bitrate I get, and the album art requiring looking and futzing... It's just a shitty way to get music for all involved.
But when I'm not even allowed to buy it online (except for on CD--which I still do for music I really, really like, so I can rip it lossless), what's a boy to do?
The world was looking so pretty, without all those borders... Why do companies and governments need to redraw them through technological means? The promise of the internet is being quashed everywhere you look...
No judge or tax man can proove you have to pay income tax by law, they cannot site the laws, they just say
"you have to, pay it, we have guns and can kill you and your family and fake a murder suicide like we have done lots of times"
Just leave usa, like 150k californians have already because of high taxes. No senator pays taxes, or any corporate, so why should us cerfs.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.