Apple's Terms No Longer Allow ITMS Purchases Outside of US

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?"

Quick someone register itunesproxy.com

[Foofoobar]

Register itunesproxy.com before apple does!!!

HA HA HA HA

[jhfry]

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:You are subject to laws of where you live

[neuromanc3r]

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.

Bad example. It is a common misconception that Mein Kampf is illegal in Germany. You are allowed to have a copy (even though it you will probably not find a new one anywhere).

it hasn't been enforced

[stress_weenie]

This policy is not new. It has been around for at least a year. But I live outside the US (and I am a US citizen... not that it matters in this case) and I still regularly purchase and download and watch TV shows and movies on iTunes. In fact, it is the only software that lets me do this. Amazon and other alternatives disable their service outside the US.

Re:So, Fanboys...

[argent]

What do you have to say about Apple's warm and fuzzy user-friendly DRM now?

I say "I just upgraded three tracks from Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack to "Kikujiro" to iTunes Plus", what do you expect me to say? I should refuse to take advantage of the fact that Apple finally got the labels to agree to let them finish removing the cold and prickly DRM from the trackes they're licensing?

And whoever modded you "funny" must be similarly out of touch.

Re:Deployed

[donaggie03]

No, we have a local Afghan internet service provider. Of course there are military computers all over base, but we cannot use them for personal use . . especially not to install software and dl music.

iTunes Plus

[argent]

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 .

Re:Deployed

[Dravik]

A lot of the internet access is contracted out. Often deployed personnel get the Italian or Germain versions of google and will have a problem with itunes thinking they are in the country where the sat downlink(and thus ip address range) is located.

Re:You are subject to laws of where you live

[mikael_j]

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.

Actually, the law you would've broken was a US law, there's a reason lots of software that contained encryption was written in a way that allowed it to ship without the encryption, so that europeans and others could use the encryption module/plugin/component coded outside the US.

Also, I think this move is partly to stop non-americans from getting US iTunes accounts so that they can buy movies and TV shows (yeah, are you listening Apple? We're still waiting!).

/Mikael

Re:Geography - not nationality

[davecb]

Odd, I have a Canadian credit card and itunes still takes my money (;-))

--dave

Re:You are subject to laws of where you live

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:You are subject to laws of where you live

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. In Germany as well as in Austria 'Mein Kampf' is an illegal book prohibited under laws against glorifying and identifying with the National Socialist German Workers Party.
Only heavily commented versions are available and legal.

Re:it hasn't been enforced

[Ertman]

Amazon even disables their service within the US if you don't use a US credit card. (I can walk into any record store in the US while on vacation and buy a CD or DVD using my credit card, but I can't buy songs or videos from Amazon because I don't have a US billing address. How silly.)

You can always try talking to Apple

[JonahsDad]

A friend of mine ordered the MLB.TV video streaming package, then had to spend most of the baseball season in China. After he tried unsuccessfully to use the service, he contacted MLB.TV's tech support, and although 1st layer support was no help, he eventually worked his way up to someone who was able to grant him access.
Obviously, since Apple doesn't own the music, they might be less flexible. Doesn't cost anything other than time to try.