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'Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously' (vellumatlanta.com)
Vellum's James has written about his ordeal with Apple Music which many people can relate to. Apple Music, the Cupertino-based giant's online music streaming service, deleted 122GB of music files that James had stored on his computer. He writes: What Amber (supposed Apple Support representative) explained was exactly what I'd feared: through the Apple Music subscription, which I had, Apple now deletes files from its users' computers. When I signed up for Apple Music, iTunes evaluated my massive collection of Mp3s and WAV files, scanned Apple's database for what it considered matches, then removed the original files from my internal hard drive. REMOVED them. Deleted. If Apple Music saw a file it didn't recognize -- which came up often, since I'm a freelance composer and have many music files that I created myself -- it would then download it to Apple's database, delete it from my hard drive, and serve it back to me when I wanted to listen, just like it would with my other music files it had deleted. This isn't the first time Apple Music has deleted a user's locally stored music files. Long-time Apple watcher Jim Dalrymple canceled his subscription last year and called Apple Music a "nightmare" after the service allegedly deleted over 4,700 of his previously bought songs. At the time, he wrote: At some point, enough is enough. That time has come for me -- Apple Music is just too much of a hassle to be bothered with. Nobody I've spoken at Apple or outside the company has any idea how to fix it, so the chances of a positive outcome seem slim to none.Incidentally, Apple Music is rumoured for a reboot at the company's developer conference in June. It's not clear if fixing the aforementioned glitch is among Apple's imminent agenda.
If Microsoft had done this, people would be losing their minds. Since it's Apple, it's a non-story, wtf?
Sounds like Apple Music is functioning exactly as Apple designed it.
This isn't the first time Apple Music has deleted a users' locally stored music files.
You ran proprietary software on a closed source OS from a vendor that operates sweatshops with suicide netting and, most importantly, has a track record for disrespecting user rights. While I tune up the worlds tinyest violin and get going on my rendition of the Free Software Song, why not take a look at http://distrowatch.com/ for some examples of operating systems that put you in the drivers seat, and https://osalt.com/ for software that doesnt trample your ability to rock out mellow folk sensation Roger Whittaker at four in the morning.
Good people go to bed earlier.
For as much money as Apple makes, their software engineering teams seem to be a disaster. Single line OSX exploits that give root, iTunes is a mess, etc. What a disaster. Time to replace the CEO and executive team.
This is a classic example of when a software system is trying to make decisions, instead of helping them perform tasks, and it's a critical difference. I'm a big Apple fan, especially for mobile devices, but the fact that I still can't access the file system without hokey workarounds makes me really angry, for example.
Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
Cryptolockers do almost the same thing, they store a key on their servers and take away direct control over your files. But it seems apple is getting away with this. Because its headquarters isn't in a country with cyrillic or chinese writing systems, but in SV.
Any well designed system with a delete function should have an undo function.
Any well designed software should have an EASY way to designate which parts of a network it will have access to and which it will have no access to.
Any well designed software should make it very clear what it is doing and get permission, not assume it is granted.
Failing to do all three of these things in the hallmark of incredibly bad software - not being able to undo deletions, requiring full access, and unclear permissions are the kind of thing you expect from a Virus, not Apple
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
I've got decade old music files that Apple Music did not delete from my Mac. Apple Music also properly uploaded those files to iCloud so I can stream them to my iOS devices.
After all, Apple is downloading his music from his machine and uploading it to Cupertino without permission.
Their business model involves outright stealing.
No contract allows someone to steal from you, no matter what their lawyer thinks.
Don't sue them, insist on legal charges of theft being placed against them, specifically naming the programmers, lawyers, and CEO of Apple as the responsible party.
Agree to settle if they cancel the terms of their contract.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
What kind of software removes files from a local disk without even asking for user confirmation?
How do you make safe backups of things "stored" in the "cloud"?
This is definitely NOT a non-story...
...you WILL get fleas. Seriously, why would anyone use such a super-suck-worthy product from such a notoriously greedy company that is known to give less than a bubbly-fart's worth of care about their customers?
"What kind of software removes files from a local disk without even asking for user confirmation?"
Malware.
I have written a truly remarkable program which this sig is too small to contain.
"...iTunes evaluated my massive collection of Mp3s and WAV files, scanned Apple's database for what it considered matches, then removed the original files from my internal hard drive. REMOVED them. Deleted. If Apple Music saw a file it didn't recognize -- which came up often, since I'm a freelance composer and have many music files that I created myself -- it would then download it to Apple's database, delete it from my hard drive, and serve it back to me"
Wow, what a fabulous process. I'm sure nothing could possibly go wrong with this. Oh, wait...
Seriously, the idea that Apple (or any company) could remotely reach into your PC and remove arbitrary files is mind-bending. Yes, I'm sure their EULA "allows" it, but still, WTF??
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Well, I agree it's horrendous, but a bug? No, this is an intentional feature! Maybe it proves Apple's proprietary crap is malware, but it sure doesn't stop this from being a feature. That users tolerate being treated that way is shocking to me.
I'm happy to report that Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and all of the other desktop Linuxes I have tried have never deleted any of my files without my permission. I also don't lose my work because my OS has decided to update or nag me to upgrade while I'm the middle of something.
My computer and my data belong to me. Not to Microsoft. Not to Apple. Not to Google or Oracle or HP or IBM or Samsung. Nobody but me!
user should learn to configure his stuff before setting a torch to his local content
No, Apple should learn to not set a torch to content on user's machine
http://www.geoffreylandis.com