iTunes: Don't leave home with them

[Asher]

http://politechbot.com/p-04993.html

I just received a harsh lesson in DRM and record label-driven policy that
may be of interest to those on your lists who are Apple customers and may
be leaving the United States in the future. Having purchased a number of
songs from the Apple Music Store while in the US and using a US funds
credit card, I regrettably didn't read the fine print. I've now discovered
that if you leave the country, your songs may just disappear, as mine have.

I've recently moved to Canada and just this week had a problem with my
PowerBook that called for me undertaking a reinstall. After firing up
iTunes and attempting to play purchased songs, I was asked to reauthorize
those songs, using the Apple ID associated with the purchase. No problem, I
thought. This is the Apple Music Store, not PressPlay or MusicNet. I paid
for these songs and they're mine. Silly me. Apparently, if you change your
contact address and/or have your US credit card address changed, as I did,
you are no longer able to play the songs you paid for while on US soil.

After going back and forth with AMS customer support, they pointed me to
the terms of sale policy, and there it is in the very first paragraph:
<http://www.info.apple.com/usen/musicstore/policies.html>

So, shame on me for not reading the fine print. But if you're spending
money with Apple and plan a departure from the States any time soon, your
money would be better spent on little round platters.

Go Apple, Go Apple...

[Cruddy]

What's the betting MS will have a similar policy for Palladium?

[Asher]

What, restricting all files secured by Palladium to being US-only?

Nil, I'd say.

[Asher]

And for the record, Buymusic.com, which is 100% run by Microsoft software (Windows Server 2003, Windows Media 9) is like iTunes, but with 100,000 more songs, and you can use them outside of the US as well.

[FrustratedPoet]

That just sucks, plain and simple. I doubt even the Apple fanboys can seriously defend that policy.

Although, how much is this policy decided by Apple and how much is dictated to them by the record industry?

[Asher]

http://www.buymusic.com/product.aspx?sku=200548023&loc=18282

http://www.buymusic.com/product.aspx?sku=200564256&loc=18250

http://www.buymusic.com/product.aspx?sku=200547957&loc=18250

[FrustratedPoet]

In order to take full advantage of BuyMusic.com's offerings you must be on a Windows Operating System using Internet Explorer version 5.0 or higher.

Well ... that'll teach me for using Opera, won't it?

[CivPatriot]

And the DRM for Buymusic.com is
varies from record company to company

for the itunes music store
comps=3 that you can download, burn onto and share music between(plus unlimited on your LAN if they do not have DRM)
devices=unlimited
burns=unlimited

Yeah i admit that the licensing issue out side of the US is a problem, but apple's working on it(its an issue with the record iundusty that we've come to love and enjoy), plus the iTunes interface is far superior to that of WMP.

and all you need is itunes4(windows version out later this year)

[Sarxis]

Its all about control.

[Asher]

CivPatriot: There's a lot more issues I have with iTunes Music Store aside from the US-only policy.

Namely, you need to use iTunes4 (what's wrong with a web browser???), and if you want to use a portable MP3 player it has to be the iPod...

Stuff like BuyMusic.com works for any MP3 player that supports WMA (like the entire Nomad family).

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Asher
(like the entire Nomad family).

But not iPod's, right?

[Asher]

Only because Apple chooses not to support WMAs.

They could easily do it with a firmware update, it can use the same decoder chips as MP3s.

[CivPatriot]

I didn't see it on the list of the "approved devices" as for needing an ipod to play music from the store, i'm not sure that has been addressed that i'm aware of, I do know that itunes does support other players than the ipod(as far as i am aware of)

As for itunes, its the dominate mp3 player on the mac platform(basically the same way that WMP is for the majority of people on the PC)

Should the itunes music store also have an option to access from a broswer? yeah I think so, hopefully we will see this option when the music store adds windows support.

[Asher]

The DRM for the iTunes store is proprietary. Plus the iPod is the only player I know of that can play AAC files.

Apple's got it locked down essentially to Apple-only products. It's quite typical of Apple, really.

[CivPatriot]

And to use buymusic you have to use WMP 9 and IE and XP home or Pro, sounds like a lockdown on microsoft products to me.

And like the itunes music store its only currenly availble to US residents.

Plus if all ipods can be update via software to handle AAC files shouldn't other players be able to as well?