iTunes: Don't Leave Home With Them 725
BadDoggie writes "Politech is reporting that your 'ownership' of music purchased from Apple's iTunes isn't what everyone considers ownership. According to the license, 'Apple may use technologies to verify' that you have not 'use[d] or attempt[d] to use the service from outside of the [United States]'. This includes Canada. Apple's 'technologies' delete the bought-and-paid-for files with no refund and no replacement when & if you leave the U.S." Update: 07/25 16:23 GMT by P : The post to Politech says the songs would "disappear," not be deleted; from the context, it seems they were merely unplayable, not deleted. Update: 07/25 21:34 GMT by M : Apple has contacted the guy, and is apparently making him happy. However, the question remains: Apple definitely doesn't want people buying new songs from outside the U.S., but do they intend to generally permit foreign users to reauthorize (in effect, retain access to) the songs they have already purchased? Apple's policy is very unclear on that point.
Fine Print? (Score:2, Informative)
Unless the guy can't read, it's his fault - not Apple's.
I'm sure he has a backup - right? - it's the only way to use your computer and your data.
Gil
Re:Huh (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/fr
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Canada ... (Score:5, Informative)
CRIA = Canadian Recording Industry Association [www.cria.ca].
not quite what the title says (Score:5, Informative)
Well that doesn't say apple will suddenly disable all your music files if you step out of US soil for say a week or a month.
Apple'sn policies clearly state that you may only purchase songs in the US.
Shawn Yeager worked for Microsoft and MusicDirect (Score:5, Informative)
The guy that complains about Apple's restrictice licenses not only USED TO WORK FOR MICROSOFT, he also developed MusicDirect.com [musicdirect.com], a direct competitor to the iTunes Store. (Read it yourself on his Home page [shawnyeager.com].
As the french say: honi soit qui mal y pense. ("shamed be he who thinks evil of it")
Big Deal (Score:1, Informative)
From the way I read it, if he hadn't tried to reinstall (necessitating reauthentication in iTunes) he wouldn't have had a problem.
Apple made it pretty clear that this was an USA only thing. I would suggest that the guy have some in the states burn all of his music to CDs. It sounds like he still has the files and still have the ability to play them (if he sets up a computer in the US to do so).
Re:No GPS please (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Huh (Score:3, Informative)
Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Dwnloads (Score:5, Informative)
Many unsigned musicians provide free downloads of their music on their websites as a way to attract more fans. Here's some from my friend Oliver Brown [kingturtle.com] for example. Many such musicians, while relatively unknown, are as good as any major label band and certainly an improvement over the pablum they serve up on ClearChannel.
You can find many more examples in my new article:
- Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads [goingware.com]
The article also explores some of the historical and legal issues behind copyright, and suggests steps the file traders can take to make file sharing legal.If you're a musician who offers downloads of your music, I can link to your band's website from the article if you give my article a reciprocal link. Please follow the instructions given here [goingware.com]
He's full of it. (Score:4, Informative)
I have iTMS files on my powerbook. I travel internationally at least once a month, and I have *never* experienced a problem. Once the files are on your HD, they play just as they normally would if you were right at "home"
I have a nasty feeling this is some FUD, clear and simple. After all, this isn't an "article" this was an email.
Sigh.
Re:Based on information you volunteer (Score:4, Informative)
I didn't think the blurb could be exactly correct. When i go to iTunes (I'm using a Swedish IP) the message I get says that I won't be able to purchase music unless my billing address is in the United States. So it wouldn't make sense for them to let me buy it with a stateside billing address then delete it when I download it, now would it?
It's damnably stupid to have such Mickey Mouse restrictions in the first place, but you know the record companies must have insisted on language to that effect if they were to do business at all.
This makes sense (Score:5, Informative)
The moral? The license agreement says you aren't to export the songs. This has nothing to do with DRM - it would still be a breach of contract (thus revoking your license to use the songs) to export the songs even if iTMS was giving you straight MP3s.
Re:no friendly DRM (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Heres a question. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Based on information you volunteer (Score:1, Informative)
They don't delete your songs. This guy LOST his songs in a reinstall, and was trying to buy em back.
Re:no friendly DRM (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No GPS please (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Huh (Score:4, Informative)
If you haven't got all the kit needed to do that, try buffering via tape, which has an inherent bandpass characteristic. If your deck has a special mode for recording from FM stereo, engage that, and any noise reduction you can find. Set the level to match your favourite high-bias {chrome or metal} tape, with the peaks reaching as high as they did on your test recordings.
If the original recording from soundcard to soundcard sounded noticeably poorer than tape, chances are that soundcard-to-tape-to-soundcard will sound about as good as tape.
Has anyone else noticed, though, that LINE IN jacks are becoming an endangered species?
Hey wait one moment... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wow! Canada is *outside* the US! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Or even better... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The keep referring to it as a "sale" (Score:2, Informative)
Of course not. But would you walk into a bookstore and ask for a replacement to that new Harry Potter book you picked up last week, because you lost yours, or it was destroyed in an accident?
I can see it now, "I was reading next to the pool when little Jimmy came running by and bumped it right in! The text bled all through the pages, and it's completely useless now! I'd like a replacement copy, since I did buy it last week."
You may argue that since there's no physical media, this is somehow different. Fah! We all know that it's oh so much of a hassle to burn a cd from a collection of mp3's...
The fact that they allow you to re-download your songs is IMO merely a nice gesture. Ultimately, you are responsible for backing up your songs to a cd, another computer, etc. If your computer crashes, it's your problem. Not theirs.
Re:Errr....am I missing the delete part? (Score:4, Informative)
Purchases from the iTunes Music Store are available only in the United States and are not available in any other location. You agree not to use or attempt to use the service from outside of the available territory. Apple may use technologies to verify such compliance. (Emphasis mine)
Yeah, that emphasized part spells it all out.
Re:And if you're not happy.... (Score:3, Informative)
Service != Songs (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sigh.... (Score:3, Informative)
Me to?
I am going to go with, "My iTunes purchased music still
works even though I am in the UK now."
And "I have actually purchased entire albums while in the UK"
Never deleted (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Heres a question. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Heres a question. (Score:5, Informative)
Dang, there goes my chance to moderate :(
Re:Don't change address on credit card (Score:3, Informative)
Of course if you attempt to buy anything after the card is cancelled, it'll fail authorization with the issuing card company and then I suspect you've blown yourself out of the water as far as DRM re-authorization goes.
This sounds an awful lot like an oversight, wherein it simply wasn't anticipated that songs purchased in the US would move overseas in the course of the buyer simply emigrating... and thereafter being unable to demonstrate (via a US billing address) that they met the original purchase requirements (being able to at least plausibly pretend to be US residents).
Re:And if you're not happy.... (Score:1, Informative)
www.emusic.com [emusic.com]
But it *is* interesting to hear that Apple has been courting independent record labels (which largely make up Emusic's catalog).
Wrong - there's no "re-downloading" on iTMS (Score:2, Informative)
You can't "re-download" files on the iTunes Music Store. If you lose the file, you have lost the song. Apple have made this well documented.
Deleting a file you've bought from the iTMS caused the same result as snapping a purchased music CD in half - you no longer have the music.
Solution... (and more information) (Score:5, Informative)
Get a "disposable" MasterCard from webcertificate.com [webcertificate.com]. You can use any other current credit card to purchase the card. (There is, of course, a service fee associated with it.) But the card can be associated with any address you wish, including a US address (just make sure the city/state/zip association is a valid one; other information can be bogus).
This was originally billed as a way for any international user with a credit card to purchase music from the iTunes Music Store. However, it appears that this method could be used to just get yourself a credit card number that's associated with a US billing address for the purposes of associating it with your AppleID. See webcertificate.com's faq [webcertificate.com] for more info.
In sum:
iTunes Music Store does not "check" to see where you are via IP address, or any other network method.
Music you own is never "deleted".
The only reason this user encountered the issue is because he had to reinstall his entire OS, and reauthorize the computer with a credit card whose billing address had since been changed to a non-US address - this didn't specifically disallow him from playing his purchased music; rather, it didn't allow him to REauthorize the computer in order to play the purchased music. As others have said, this seems to be more of a unique situation/accident than intentional on Apple's part (notwithstanding the valid legal considerations Apple has).
Music you burn to CD from iTunes Music Store is yours to keep - FOREVER. No matter where you move. You DO own the music you buy from iTunes Music Store. (Unlike other sites [buymusic.com]).
As soon as international licensing arrangements are worked out, more and more countries will have iTunes Music Store available.
Apple did much better than anyone else [chron.com] with keeping broad rights with the user/customer, where they belong.
And, finally, a letter from the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA:
Re:Canada is Consistent (Score:3, Informative)
Second of all: What does your statement has to do with what I am saying? There is a lot of FUD thrown around about how to make the homeland more secure, most of this is utter rubbish:
- Passports? They had all papers that were legit.
- Immigration Papers? The files where with INS and were going to be approved.
It wasn't Canada who let them in nor did they use Canada as a transit land. It seems to me that there is the idea in some peoples had that the highjacker came into the US illegally, they did not. There was a breakdown in your system, but that is hardly how it is portraited in the media, now is it?
Re:Ah well... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ah well... (Score:3, Informative)
Alarmist posting (Score:1, Informative)
Critique (Score:1, Informative)
1- Analogue filtering won't remove compression artefacts without sacrificing HF response, adding high pass filters can cause serious group delay if not implemented correctly (flabby bass drums for example), and be careful to choose the correct filter circuit topology: some exhibit high distortion regardless of the op-amp used.
2- Instrumentation-grade op amps are not always optimized for audio band applications (consult Analog Devices' data sheets on this one); a descrete op amp (anything but Lin topology) would be a better choice. I would suggest something along the lines of the Jensen Twin Servo
3- Even average op-amps will give you plenty of headroom as long as your supply voltages are high enough (+/- 15 V gives a P-P output swing of 12.7V for an LM833 with a noise floor of 110dB unweighted, which isn't bad for a $2 chip) asssuming you use a unity gain bandpass filter.
4- If you're going to the trouble of making a tube pre-amp, you might as well just save time, effort and money and buy the CD. Tubes do add that nice slew rate limiting, though (oh, you're from the UK; I suppose I should use the correct term "valve")
5- Buffering via tape, while adding the bandpass filter (and audibly impinging on the HF response) also adds such problems as wow and flutter, phase error and channel crosstalk (even in the best decks), and noise. Noise reduction might mitigate this to a degree, but can lead to undesirable attenuation of the HF during quiet passages (Dolby B & C). Unless the problem of connecting one soundcard directly to another is the result of an impedence mismatch (which could be cured more easily by high impedence voltage followers after the output card, triode if you like but op-amps will do) its unlikely that this method will do anything but introduce noise and distortion which will mask the original artifacts rather than remove them. If that's what you call sounding better, then go for it.
Good point about the linear power supplies over switchmode (one that a lot of people don't realize), but I think your suggestion of using batteries is a bit extreme; with regulation and proper decoupling a linear supply should have a more than acceptable ripple voltage.
An astute observation about Line In connections. I first noticed this when Apple brought out the "Digital Audio" G4 model (um, its for audio, but there's no audio in...? Okay...). I suppose it makes some sense, given that most people only want to copy from CDs, and the internal PSU of most PCs are quite noisy (as well as being fairly low; not good for headroom), making digital transfer preferrable.
I would recommend this site:
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/ampins/ampi
Its quite interesting, and written by someone who really knows their stuff. The article "Pseudo-science in Audio" is a real eye-opener (no accusations here; just saying that it made me realize how flawed human perception can be).