iTunes Store US and iTunes Store Germany

No there is no software difference. Its all regional. For you to access the german store you would need a german credit card with a billing address in Germany.

This was done at the insistence of the rights holders, not Apple.

Paul -

I'm sorry to be argumentative here, but do you mean to say that the rights holders in Germany, the UK, Japan or anywhere else in the world don't want to use iTunes as a global platform to NOT ONLY make their goods available to anyone with a home computer, but also to make international dollars? To me, that makes no sense. iTunes HAS the technology to make all this music/books/media available...and "artists" need to make a living...I don't really see them having ANY issue with taking dollars/euros/rupees/pesos/whatever...they are looking to increase their own bottom line.

I think that iTunes should allow you to buy whatever, from whereever...no matter what your "credit card billing address" is.

Gateway Windows XP

Paul -

I'm sorry to be argumentative here, but do you mean
to say that the rights holders in Germany, the UK,
Japan or anywhere else in the world don't want to use
iTunes as a global platform to NOT ONLY make their
goods available to anyone with a home computer, but
also to make international dollars? To me, that
makes no sense. iTunes HAS the technology to make
all this music/books/media available...and "artists"
need to make a living...I don't really see them
having ANY issue with taking
dollars/euros/rupees/pesos/whatever...they are
looking to increase their own bottom line.

I think that iTunes should allow you to buy whatever,
from whereever...no matter what your "credit card
billing address" is.

Gateway Windows XP

I agree 100 percent and unfortunately, I am confirming our worst fears. Unfortunately, its not always as easy as you think. Each artist has representation that is different in each country, perhaps if artists had the motivation to sell abroad, it would work better, but the recording companies don't agree with this. I am sure that Apple would love to sell you whatever music you would like to buy, but their hands are tied. They cannot sell what they are allowed to.

To repeat what Paul has said, the issue is with the copyright holders for content. Copyright holders vary from country to country, & they really don't like cross-border sales. This link from Scott P. give a good explanation of what is going on. It's basically a case that if this was allowed not everyone will be getting their share of the "financial pie."

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121779