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Troubleshooting iTunes Music Store: Songs not available if you leave the country
Upon reading the fine print in Apple's iTunes Music Store license agreement, you will notice the following paragraph:
"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."
This means that Apple has the right to deny your ability to play and burn songs when you have traveled outside the United States. Since the iTunes Music Store is currently only available in the U.S., international users and frequent travelers appear to be out of luck.
Shawn Yeager writes about his experience with this issue:
"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.
"[...] 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."
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
Resources
burn an mp3 CD from iTunes purchased from the Music Store? I'm
assuming that it is the ACC format that retains this copyright protection
measure. Would burning the song in mp3 format not convert it and thus
strip away the protection features? Still, burning to mp3 CD would be a
good way of backing up your purchased music so you wouldn't loose
them. Worst case, you could burn them as audio and then import them
again if needed and manually add the title and artist info.
Any comments on this?
You can't burn an MP3 CD from iTMS AAC files: iTunes won't convert them to MP3 format. You *can* burn a standard CD, or burn the AAC files to a data CD.
The way this problem is being reported it sounds worse than it is: He was allowed to play the songs, with an authorized computer, in Canada just fine. He just can't authorize a computer *in Canada*. (He can take one that is authorized to Canada though.)
Needs to be fixed, of course, but is probably just a 'damn, we should have caught that' style bug... Though it may be a legal problem with the labels, in which case as soon as they roll it out to Canada he'll be fine again.
He can even authorize a computer *in Canada*. That's not the issue. The
issue is that he tried to use a credit card with a non-US address, now
associated with his AppleID, to authorize the computer. You could be on
the moon, as long as you had a credit card with a US billing address, and
use the iTunes Music Store.
Repeat, since many people on the other sites that have posted this story
don't seem to get it:
Apple does no "checking" via the network where in the world you are.
Apple doesn't somehow "know" you're not in the US by your IP address
(as many have no doubt surmised). The only thing at issue is whether or
not you have a US billing address for your credit card. That's it.
One solution is to get a "disposable" MasterCard from http://
www.webcertificate.com/ It lets you associate any billing address with it
you wish (just make sure it's a real US city/state/zip association).
Good point. Thanks for the correction.
So all he needs is one credit card, that momentaraly has a US address...
A correction to the statement that Apple doesnt know where you are.
They do in fact know your location based on your IP address. I am in
France and when I go to access the music store I get a splash page that
states the following:
The iTunes Music Store is not available in your country yet. You will be
able to browse music and listen to previews, but you won't be able to
purchase music unless your billing address is in the United States.
I click the ok button and then am allowed into the store. As I have a US
credit card I have been able to purchase download and authorise
computers despite the fact that I am not physically in the US. So
although Apple knows where you are, they do not block you from using
the Music Store.
What you say is not entirely true: the iTunes music store _does_ check
what country you are in (presumably via IP number). If you are outside
the US iTunes displays a message when you select the store: this
message politely informs you that you can browse the store and listen to
samples, but you can't download songs and make purchases unless you
have a US billing address.
Not sure if anyone is still following this thread, as it's now a few days
old, but, interestingly, I don't seem to be able to access the
webcertificate site form the UK, though Google has regular cached
pages. Is this another case of checking location via IP address?
you can burn the purchased songs to an audio cd, then import them
back in itunes. that strips away the copy protection. it's kind of a pain,
but i make audio cds for my car anyway. i live in the US for grad school
right now but i'm from canada. i hope apple changes their policy before i
move back...
[gasp]
You [shudder] just explained how to <em>circumvent</em> a digital
restrictions management scheme.
<p>
Don't you hear the jackbooted RIAA thugs knocking on your door?
contacted iTunes Support about this. It's certainly not the intended
behavior and I have no doubt they'll help you resolve the issue to your
satisfaction.
user sent around to all of the major Mac websites:</p>
<code>I've
recently moved to Canada and just this
week<br> had a
problem with my PowerBook that
<br> called for me undertaking a
reinstall.</code><p>He didn't simply "reinstall" OS X, he
<i>reformatted</i> his hard drive, removing all data from the
machine.</p><p>When he set iTunes up, again, to re-authorize it, he
had changed his billing address to his Canadian address, which no
longer could be authorized to play songs, as non-U.S. Apple accounts
are not authorized to play.</p><p>Had this been a simple issue of him
moving and changing his credit card, or <i>even if</i> he had chosen
to "archive and install" OS X, his original, U.S.-based authorization and
the music he had downloaded with it, would have remained intact.<p>Also, interesting, as pointed out on <a href="http://
www.macslash.org" target="_blank">MacSlash</a>, <a href="http://
www.slashdot.org"
target="_blank">SlashDot</a>, and <a href="http://
www.macrumors.com" target="_blank">MacRumors</a>, the author of
the note, and
the distributor website, have strong ties to an iTunes Music Store
<b><i>competitor</i></b> and to Microsoft, and as such, the
motivations
behind the warning that iTMS AAC files mysteriously "disappear" are
suspect.</p>
- by Steve Siers July 25, 2003 8:34 PM PDT
- <class="merchant"><span>></span><div class="datestamp"><i>This is a reply to a previous comment by Mustang_DVS</i></div></class><br />
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(12 Comments)This news should be moved to the head of the story, in fact it really is
the story. As far as I can see, between his "conflict of interest" and
reformatting his computer, the new credit card billing, this is a total
non-story. A prime example of marketing dis-information and FUD.
Also, I think the competitor should be named and shamed if this guy
works for them.