International iTunes restrictions - Gifts and languages

Question

Level 1

10 points

International iTunes restrictions - Gifts and languages

THESE STUPID RESTRICTIONS ON iTUNE STORE COUNTRIES.

1. I live in Switzerland, but that doesn't mean I understand German! Guess what language the iTunes store is in? German, and no way that I can find of changing it. If I change to the UK or US store...automatic logout!

2. My brother (in England) sends me a gift song [Thanks bro].
a. When you click on the link in e-mail, Firefox goes into a strange loop "waiting for...." for at least 10 minutes before giving an error. I had to manually use IE (aahh) to get the code. Then....
b. I input the code in my iTunes and I get the famous error message, "This code is only valid in UK...blah, blah, blah"

RESULT: I can't even get the great gift that my brother spent his hard earned money to buy for me.

CONCLUSION: I think Apple have never heard of globalization!

Please, somebody help me!!!!

Posted on Oct 26, 2005 2:30 PM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

182,828 points

Oct 26, 2005 3:14 PM in response to Ian Arridge

Addressing your second issue first, Apple has no control over the matter. The entities holding the rights to the tracks all are different from country to country, so each insist that Apple not allow anyone outside that country purchase the tracks. So Apple has to restrict accounts, gift certificates, etc. only to the country in which they are set up/purchased. The section where your brother purchased the gift certificate clearly states this, so it was his error.

As to the language, that has to do with how your Windows system is set up. When I view the Swiss iTunes, for instance, I get English. Try this article; it may help:

iTunes 5: Changing the display language in Windows

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Answer 2

Ian Arridge Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 27, 2005 12:58 AM in response to varjak paw

Thanks Dave but:

1. Copyrights are totally uninforceable nowadays, the owners know it and I am sure Apple know it. I think that this is just an excuse by Apple to avoid a complicated system of royalty payments. Think about it, if the copyrights where so important, then the music industry would not complain about CD/DVD stores in airports, etc.

2. I dissagree. My iTunes is in English, 99% of my software is in English, but Window$ is in German. I have all the settings in English (except keyboard layout/format and format for numbers, dates). These settings do not make a difference. iTunes store is still in German.

Did you know:
Switzerland has 4 official languages German, French, Italian and Romantsch.
English is the 2nd most used language.
More than 20% of Switzerland's population are foreigners.

People must think about these things when creating programs/sites that automatically change the language, and provide a select of language that is independant of the country and software.

Ian

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Answer 3

varjak paw

Level 10

182,828 points

Oct 27, 2005 9:44 AM in response to Ian Arridge

1. Copyrights are totally uninforceable nowadays, the owners know it and I am sure Apple know it. I think that this is just an excuse by Apple to avoid a complicated system of royalty payments. Think about it, if the copyrights where so important, then the music industry would not complain about CD/DVD stores in airports, etc.

Sorry, but if you think copyrights aren't enforceable, then you just haven't been following the news. Content providers are very successful in enforcing copyrights in most countries in the world. The music industry hates cross-border sales of CDs and DVDs (which is part of the reason why DVDs have region encoding), but legally they can't stop it. They can and do stop cross-border sales from download stores, which they do for all download stores, not just the iTunes Music Store.

2. I dissagree. My iTunes is in English, 99% of my software is in English, but Window$ is in German. I have all the settings in English (except keyboard layout/format and format for numbers, dates). These settings do not make a difference. iTunes store is still in German.

All I can say is that on my Windows XP system, the Swiss iTunes Music Store comes up in English using iTunes 6.0. If it's not a setting in Windows, then I can't imagine what else it would be.

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Answer 4

Jan 4, 2006 8:30 AM in response to varjak paw

So,
If the copyrights are so enforceable, why would the labels hate cross border sales ? A sale is a sale, no matter where the money come from . Can you imagine if Apple to restrict its ipod sales only to the US ??

So, all these cross border sales restrictions don't make sense to me especially if copyrights are enforceable ..

It's beyond me, I thought that any label would like to make a buck no matter where it comes from ...

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Answer 5

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,152 points

Jan 4, 2006 9:04 AM in response to tekiboule

It's not just the labels, it is who owns distribution rights for certain artists in each country.

If you are interested, check out Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig.

It is USA-centric, but does get into the international poitns, as well.

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Answer 6

Jan 29, 2006 6:28 AM in response to Katrina S.

well the end product is a rubbish user experience.

i gave my better half an ipod video for christmas , only to find there is ZERO video available on the swiss store......

the useless ipod is going back to the shop on Monday.

one question - if a us citizen who has an account on the us store is travelling abroad, can they still download stuff from the us store using their account.

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Answer 7

jeannieg

Level 1

0 points

Jan 30, 2006 1:39 PM in response to varjak paw

No way does the Windows language preferences influence how Music Store appears - iTunes you can choose (from the iTunes interface), but Music Store refers to either billing address or credit card "nationality" - no doubt for your stated copyright issues.

It isn't helpful for a "Mac fan" to push the "blame" onto MS!!

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