Transfer purchased app to my son's computer/ipod/account

Dave,

thanks for the reply.

I'm presumably doing something wrong, but, on my son's Mac, which I have authorised for my iTunes account, my apps don't show up. Neither do my music purchases. Terrific.

I suspect that this may have to do with the purchases having been made from the UK store, which has suddenly stopped accepting my French credit card. Fab. So presumably, if I have to change computer, I lose all my purchased apps.?? I don't understand though, why they still show up on my own Mac.

Whatever. This is just more proof that DRM doesn't work in any useful way. I bought my app and I should be able to sell it/give it to someone else if I wish. Even if it's a licence. I really wonder about the legality of all this. Even if it is legal, it shouldn't be.

Hi Mike,

My god this is so complicated.

regardless. You can authorize your sons computer to play any DRM content.

So, when you say 'authorise' it doesn't appear to mean quite what I'd expect.

I plug my iPhone into his Mac, which is authorised for my Account, but I can't play any of my purchased music through his Mac. Neither can I see any of my purchased music in the iTunes store 'Purchased' folder. (Although, my purchase history does in fact show it when logged into his computer). At this point, the only thing that 'authorisation' appears to do, is allow me to use his Mac, as a terminal, for purchases. I doubt though, that they would then show up in iTunes on my Mac.

Remember the content is stored on your computer and not the Apple servers - unless of course >you have a Dot Mac account and us your iDisk for b/u purposes.

I have both of these things. But here, I'm guessing that you don't mean I can access it from someone else's Mac, but rather that is located on Apple's servers for backup purposes. Right?

I am confident given the ability of major corporations and their legal departments that they have >likely crossed and dotted the t's and i's about legality.

You are very trusting. The business world is choc full of contracts, which when questioned in court, don't hold water. Apple, like everyone else, have to eventually 'take a view' on how to deal with these things. But that doesn't mean that their final decision would stand up in the High-Court, or in Brussels. And anyway ... for many companies, it's worth the risk. For instance ... France Telecom have been successfully sued in the EU courts 3 times over the last 10 years, for all sorts of illegal business practices. Doesn't stop them re-offending though. Presumably because they've learned that crime pays. Microsoft appear to have had some trouble with that too. 🙂

Mike, Dave,

thanks for the replies/clarification.

So I went ahead and merged my iTunes library, with my sons ... a fairly laborious process, but it worked fine in the end.

Now on his Mac he has his music and of course, the all important apps. I authorised his computer for my iTunes account and the apps show up in his library. BUT!!! I can't sync them with his iPod. So I spent rather a long time achieving absolutely nothing.

Now it is patently clear to me that AppStore purchases are tied to a specific device or perhaps contract. You cannot apparently use them on more than one device. This begs the question; what if I change devices? Maybe I'll swap my iPhone for a Blackberry (god forbid) and want to keep my apps on my iPod Touch. Is this not allowed?? Do I have to re-purchase them?

kcmc20 wrote:
OMG! Could this be more confusing or complicated? I thought Macs were supposed to be easy. I'm in the market for a new Mac and I have 3 different iPods and am dreading this whole transfer thing.

Don't worry about that. You can use the the Migration Assistant and all should be good. But even if you don't, you simply copy your Music folder from the old Mac to the new Mac. Can't get much simpler than that.

Chris,

thanks for the reply.

Happily I've made some progress this afternoon.

I ended up doing a 'Restore' followed by a 'Restore from backup' from my iPhone. That got the apps onto the iPod. (The problem was that they were 'greyed out' on the iPod's settings page ... the one you're talking about). Once there I changed the name back and tried syncing on his Mac. To my surprise it worked and the apps remained.

Then, when I was re-doing all his preference settings I think I came across what may have been the problem all along. In his 'App Store' settings on his Touch, it was set to my account. I didn't realise that there was a setting in there, because I've never used the app store on my iPhone. So granting authorisation on his Mac was either not enough, or there was a problem and the Restore fixed it. I don't know which.

Anyway ... he is happy now to have his games. I'm not so happy, because I think I should be able to transfer an app store purchase to another account (as in erase from one and install in another). Or, I should be able to sell them, or give them away. This whole DRM thing is a major PITA. And I say that as someone who relies on royalties for my living.

Chris CA wrote:
The App store username on the iPod touch is set to whoever is logged into the iTunes store when the iPod touch is last sync'd.

OK ... so that wasn't the problem then. Assuming you are allowed to have more than 1 account.

In which case, there was a problem caused by something else, because whatever I did, the tools for selecting what and how to Sync the apps was always greyed out. (iTunes, select iPod/ then Applications from the choice of tabs). I could sync everything else, including songs purchased through my account, but the entire apps tab was greyed out.