[Ham-Mac] Re: Ham-Mac digest, Vol 4 #238 - iLife4

[Carl Makin]

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004, David Ferrington wrote:

> Only one thing that I get really fed up with in iTunes - 500,000 songs on
> Music Store? - yeah - but only if you live in the USA.
> Apologies to those of you that do, but when are American companies going to
> realise there are other countries out here!
> I'm dying to spend my money buying tracks - for once Apple is unwilling to
> take it.

I've heard this complaint a lot.  I don't think it is Apple that is
unwilling to take your money.  Jobs has admitted they make nothing on
music sold through the iTunes store.  I'd guess it's the record companies
that won't let other countries access it.

The entertainment media companies have a long history of blocking free
transfer of products between countries as a method of artifically keeping
prices high.  Look at the debate in Australia over the "parallel imports
of CDs" and the implementation of DVD region codes.  Neither were designed
to protect the consumer.


Carl.