Slashdot Mirror
Say Goodbye To That Unwanted U2 Album
Ronin Developer writes Apple has listened to the complaints of those who object to having received a pushed copy of U2's latest album as part of their recent campaign. While nobody has been charged for the download, some objected to having it show up in their purchases and, in some cases, pushed down to their devices. While it is possible to remove the album from your iTunes library, it takes more steps than most would like to take. Apple has responded and released a tool to make it possible to remove the album from your iTunes library in a single step.
I will not be satisfied until Apple provides a tool to remove Bono entirely.
It's nice Apple responded, but the outrage over this whole thing (especially for people who have already bought into the iTunes garden) seems way overblown.
Some perspective might help.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
It seems like the whole world enjoys being outraged by the pettiest bullshit (and indeed goes out of its way to FIND things the be outraged about) in a world full of very important concerns no one gives a shit about.
The tool looks at the rest of your music collection while it's deleting the U2 album and judges you accordingly. "Oh, the Justin Beiber gets to stay but you're deleting the U2 album? OK I see how it is!"
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
You never needed to give apple any money to get the music for free. All you needed was an iTunes account/password and you got the album for free. No prior purchase was necessary. In fact, if you sign up for a free iTunes account before some day in October, you still get the album for free...no purchases required.
But it's 5 days of millions of people. So it's centuries of their souls, compared to just some years.
U2 should pay the soul difference. Preferably not in music. Please.
That means almost five month and a half to produce a single song. In the real world where you need to do real work, you'd have starved to death long before you could finish your album.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I don't have an iProduct that got force-downloaded. Today is my anniversary (a big number). So I don't see a first-world problem; I see a relationship problem.
It's not about the album. It's about control. It's about changing the station in the car radio when someone else is driving. It's about putting up with his sports posters and her frilly pillowcases. It's about changing the address list so it's alphabetical by first name instead of last name, and rearranging the desktop to be organized horizontally instead of vertically.
I feel your pain. But I can assure you that you can get through this.
You're going to need to be more specific about which "unwanted U2 album" you are talking about.
People acting like users have no right to complain about free shit need some perspective.
For example, do you like tofu? No? Well tough shit, it's free, and I'm going to force feed you three pounds of it. You have no right to complain about free food. Hell, I'll opt for stinky tofu while I'm at it. Here in Taiwan, people love that shit. Everyone who doesn't thinks it smells and tastes like raw sewage.
U2 is the stinky tofu of the music industry. You have people who like them, and people who can't imagine why you would find it necessary to inflict such pain upon yourself.
To remove the album, users need to:
Apple warned that, once the album has been removed from a user's account, it will no longer be available for them to redownload as a previous purchase. If they later decide they want the album, they will need to get it again.
The album is free to everyone until 13 October 2014, and will be available for purchase after that date.