Apple Forced To Clean Up Its Fine Print

Barence writes "Apple has been forced to tidy up its online terms and conditions, at the behest of the UK's Office of Fair Trading. The company has redrafted its Ts & Cs so that it now accepts liability for faulty or misdescribed goods sold from its website or the iTunes store. Apple must also ensure that its conditions are 'drafted in plain or intelligible language' and that they 'do not potentially allow changes to be made to products and prices after an agreement is made.'"

Comments

oh, that

[overcaffein8d]

you mean, the iTunes clause:

You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons.

??

Re:oh, that

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally, the bad guys aren't allowed to add Rickrolling to their WMDs. We can sleep in peace.

Re:oh, that

[Anonymous Coward]

Y'know, the Microsoft JVM EULA (or maybe it was the Windows 98 EULA?) had a clause almost identical to that for years before iTunes was even a concept. It bugs me every time I hear someone call it the "iTunes clause"...

So you're saying we have evidence that Apple copy stuff from Microsoft.

Re:oh, that

[Concerned Onlooker]

That's because it's not an atomic clock.

Re:oh, that

[mysidia]

That's because a JVM is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled, and if they are filled, when you put your program in, it gets in line, and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into the tube enormous emounts of information, enormous amounts of information.

And then, if it gets too congested, your JVM explodes, taking the entire internet with it!

Re:oh, that

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you'll find that ham isn't Halal.

Laaaaa

[Anonymous Coward]

And that's why I am a PC. :)

Misdescribed Goods

[Donkey_Hotey]

iTunes lists rap stars as recording artists . Would that fall under the "faulty or misdescribed goods" part?

Re:Misdescribed Goods

[dgatwood]

iTunes lists rap stars as recording artists . Would that fall under the "faulty or misdescribed goods" part?

iTunes also lists rap in their music section. Would that fall under the "faulty or misdescribed goods" part?

Re:But do they...

[copponex]

And you wonder why Apple users start to get an attitude? It's because we've been suffering dolt-ish comments like this for so long.

I thought it was because you were broke...

Does such a fabled place truly exist?

[Snufu]

must also ensure that its conditions are 'drafted in plain or intelligible language'

Surely this is a land without lawyers. Where is this 'United Kingdom' and how soon may we journey to its fair shores?

Re:Does such a fabled place truly exist?

[rishistar]

The United Kingdom is the place wherein lies England, the home of the one and only plain an intelligible language that we all love and know - English. Some languages are non-plain using fancy characters but *all* other languages are unintelligible - ironically none more so than one from another part of the United Kingdom - Welsh.

Re:Does such a fabled place truly exist?

[badzilla]

A Brit friend was visiting the USA and phoned the operator (could have been the internal operator at his large company) to ask which international dialling prefix he should use to call home. A short silence then... "United Kingdom? Is that an amusement park?"

Re:Apple and the UK

[mjwx]

Apple definitely won't be the only well known company in the UK to do things like these (Microsoft?)

Cant say about the UK but in AU we have similar laws, bank and telco ad's get pulled all the time. Often they come back with ridiculous amounts of fine print displayed in 3 seconds to comply with advertising standards.

With Apple, they deliberately misrepresent their goods so of course these kinds of things happen, MS don't release an ad that often and always get it checked (if not done by) a local ad agency who will ensure its compliance. Occasionally they do get ad's pulled though, the "get the Facts(R)*+" campaign for example.

* - Facts(R) is a registered trademark of Microsoft(TM) and may not represent any actual facts.
+ - May contain traces of nut egg or seed.