divorce - custody of the ITunes library

Bluebird,

Content purchased from the iTunes Store is permanently associated with the account from which it was originally purchased, with no way to change that.

Although she can listen to your songs on the iPod, she cannot do anything else with them. What is the plan for the first time she needs to restore or replace the iPod?

Bottom line, if you are keeping the account, then you are the only one with ongoing access to the content.

Bluebird,

To create a new account, click on Store, then on Create Account. If you don't see Create Account, first click Sign Out, and then do it.

However, the new account is not the main issue.

If you wish to convey acopy of the music to your ex, the iPod is not an appropriate way to do it. Rather, do the following:

-Put the iPod in a drawer. You will not need it until the last step.

-Check the "Kind" of the songs in your library. If any of them are "Protected," upgrade those songs to iTunes Plus per these instructions: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1711

-Once you are sure you have no more protected files, make a copy of the entire iTunes library on an external HD, or on a flash drive if you have one big enough.

-Have your ex copy the library onto her own computer that she will be using going forward. Have her get her library on order on the new machine, make sure things play properly, delete stuff she doesn't want, etc.

-When the library is in good order, sync the iPod to the new machine.

ed2345 wrote:

Bluebird,

Content purchased from the iTunes Store is permanently associated with the account from which it was originally purchased, with no way to change that.

Not true anymore.

There have now been legal settlements in divorce where the Court has ordered that these properties be divisible thereby forcing content be re-assigned to another Apple ID and account.

Statutes and court orders trump Apple's terms every time. We are going to see this more and more as content is merely an asset and all assets are divisibale and assignable in divorce.

There have now been legal settlements in divorce where the Court has ordered that these properties be divisible thereby forcing content be re-assigned to another Apple ID and account.

Statutes and court orders trump Apple's terms every time.

Ari, very interesting, thanks.

Do you happen to have a citation on any of those cases? I am curious how a settlement between two parties, Ex-Husband and Ex-Wife, can impose obligations on Retailer A who in the past sold them something but is not party to the settlement.

(There is also the technical issue that the original purchaser's Apple ID is embedded into each piece of content, although I suppose that could be remedied by allowing a fresh download of the same content from the new Apple ID.)

No citations as these were settlements via court imposed order, not trial.

From my understanding the contract between the Account holder is not subject to privity if it was sigend within a marriage where all property and rights are divisible. The whole point of marriage is joined assets. State and provincial law about asset ownership take priority over private contracts bewteen individuals within the marriage period. Each state in the US is different, however. I suspect digital license issuers like Apple don't fight these because it would open up a very thorny issue about digital content being somehow immune from much older laws.

If an account itself is not divisible (like a sofa is not) or shared, but if there is a means beyond contract EULA's (which Judges hate, BTW) to divide and re-assign content (like the cushions on the sofa), then that option appears to be the lesser of two evils for Apple and other digital content providers.

Digital asset re-assignment in divorce, death, and disability are a rapidly growing area where I expect state and provincial laws to erase many current provisions of EULA's. I cannot see a judge where I reside believing that some copy of Shrek is not able to be tranferred to the other party in a divorce because it is tied to the other spouse's Apple ID reliant on an obscure, small print line in an EULA. There is not technical reason (including embedded Apple ID's) preventing a transfer of rights. I have seen foreign assets and far away bank accounts, shares, bonds, etc. transferred despite supposed non-transferrable clauses in contracts. What is over-arching isn't necessarily the property but the underlying asset.

No judge would order each get a copy as that would be unjust enrichment. I foresee a great many court-ordered transferring of digital assets in the near future.

Ari,

Very interesting, thanks for the information.

ed2345,

Will your method maintain playlists, ratings, etc.?

Thanks,

--Matt

James Landrum wrote:

ed2345,

Will your method maintain playlists, ratings, etc.?

Thanks,

--Matt

Matt,

If you first consolidate the library and then copy the entire iTunes folder, the playlists and other library data will be intact.

Note that the upgrade program that I referred to in my 2012 answer above is no longer in effect. If you are planning something, you may want to start a thread with your specific question and solicit up-to-date information.