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Apple's Terms No Longer Allow ITMS Purchases Outside of US
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:57 AM
from the just-a-test-to-see-if-you're-reading-the-terms dept.
from the just-a-test-to-see-if-you're-reading-the-terms dept.
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?"
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News: eReader.com Limits E-book Sales To US Citizens 182 comments
An anonymous reader writes "eReader.com seems to have begun applying distribution restrictions to its library. I first noticed that there was a FAQ page about distribution restrictions this morning. When I tried to order a few books this afternoon I simply couldn't — a large banner on the order confirmation told me the books had distribution restrictions. I checked a number of titles but it seems a large number of books are no longer available to non-US citizens like me. It is interesting to note that this policy change got implemented shortly after Barnes&Noble purchased Fictionwise. I have no idea if the new owners are behind this new policy but it seems crazy to restrict sales of ebooks. I've bought dozens of ebooks from eReader the past 4 years. I still have 15 dollar store credit but cannot buy any of the books I am interested in." (Right now, the link that should display these new geographic restrictions returns an error message that says the page is being updated.) Sounds like Barnes & Noble is taking its cues from Apple.
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Quick someone register itunesproxy.com (Score:5, Interesting)
HA HA HA HA (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:HA HA HA HA (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:HA HA HA HA (Score:5, Informative)
You know Spotify has done the same? A fair bit of music is unavailable in several countries due to licensing issues.
This isn't Apple, Spotify or any stores fault. It's the music business.
Yay for making it easy for consumers to buy music.
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You are subject to laws of where you live (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:You are subject to laws of where you live (Score:5, Funny)
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.
LOL, I think this might be the most sensible post to invoke Godwin's Law ever!
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Re:You are subject to laws of where you live (Score:5, Interesting)
It also is quite wrong. It is legal to own "Mein Kampf" in Germany. It is not legal to sell, give or even show it to somebody else. It is also illegal to purchase it as far as I know.
Possession however is fine.
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Re:You are subject to laws of where you live (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:You are subject to laws of where you live (Score:5, Informative)
It is neither of those. The copyright to mein kampf and other Nazi works fell to the state of bavaria, which by copyright simply doesnt allow any copying of mein kampf and hasnt since the second world war. If you happen to have one of the old copies from the WW2, or you bought it a state that doesnt reckognize avarias copyright on it, youre perfectly fine to do anything you want with it. Of course, there are several anti-nazi-agitation laws and selling the book on ebay may invoke some of those laws, but theres nothing specific to this one book and applies to all nazi memorabilia.
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Re:You are subject to laws of where you live (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think the submitter is complaining that what iTunes is doing is illegal (or that he should be subject to US law while abroad). I think he is complaining that what iTunes is doing is stupid.
He wants to be a customer. He wants to give them money. But they (iTunes, or whichever content providers require this rule) want to restrict things regionally. These regional restrictions are inconvenient, arbitrary, and illogical in an age of ubiquitous global network connectivity, and easy trans-national travel. Someone abroad can circumvent the restrictions easily with a proxy. Conversely a US citizen on a trip abroad is denied access (whereas it would have been fine if they had downloaded it while in the US and carried it on their computer on the plane). Thus it doesn't seem that the rule accomplishes its nominal goal. Actually for the most part the nominal goal isn't even clear. In short, the restrictions are silly.
Of course it is within iTune's ability (technical and legal) to impose such restrictions. But it just seems illogical, since anywhere that the content is not available through a legitimate source (or available but only after a substantial delay) will simply increase the amount of circumvention (proxy, file sharing, etc.). So why don't these companies want the money being offered to them?
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Re:You are subject to laws of where you live (Score:5, Insightful)
He wants to be a customer. He wants to give them money. But they (iTunes, or whichever content providers require this rule) want to restrict things regionally.
In some cases yes, in many cases its not that they WANT to restrict things, its that they HAVE to.
If Warner owns song X in the US, and Sony owns it Brazil, then no matter how much Warner wants to sell you the song in Brazil they CAN'T. And if Sony owns it but doesn't want to sell it, or wants to sell it but charge more than Warner, that's life. Warner can't do squat about it except say, hey, come to the US and buy a copy while you are actually here.
In the case I describe Warner isn't trying to restrict things regionally, but don't own the rights to distribute the song in Brazil, and someone else does, so they just can't.
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Re:You are subject to laws of where you live (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they could hold a book burning party
--jeffk++
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Deployed (Score:5, Insightful)
Geography - not nationality (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Completely out of control (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:US and Canada? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, Canada is still outside the US...for now~
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Re:US and Canada? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:US and Canada? (Score:5, Funny)
Pessimist!
I prefer to think it half empty of French.
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Re:US and Canada? (Score:5, Informative)
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...
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Re:US and Canada? (Score:5, Funny)
Apple annexed Canada? Just wow. I didn't know that had that much cash on hand.
Well, congrats Steve.
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Re:US and Canada? (Score:5, Funny)
Fortunately, we have Palin standing on the coast up there keeping a close eye on them.
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Re:use torrents (Score:5, Funny)
He could use that service that we never speak about.
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Re:use torrents (Score:5, Funny)
The Zune store?
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iTunes Plus (Score:5, Interesting)
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 .
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Re:Amazon MP3 (Score:5, Informative)
Try out Amazon MP3 [tinyurl.com].
It's cheap, DRM-less, and easy. Plus
... it can't be used outside the USA either. Great alternative there.
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