iTunes 8 adds podcast controls, terms of service geographic limit (not new)

One other great addition to iTunes 8 is the much improved possibilities to update meta information for TV shows and movies.

The regional restriction was definitely in iTunes 7. I ran into it trying to find the sexy, naughty, bitchy video of Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy by Tata Young, a Thai singer. iTMS didn't have it under Tata Young (a few other songs, but not that one), so I had the idea to use the My Store drop-down menu at the bottom of the window to switch to Thailand. (She's famous there, so surely they would have it, right?) Instead, it took me to the App Store! I reported it to Apple as a bug. I was later informed that my address had to be in a country to use its iTunes store.

You would think that Thailand would want her to be able to sell her songs in the US and tax her increased income, or get more sales tax on the more stuff she could afford to buy, or whatever. However their government makes its money, I'm sure that having more money coming into their country helps.

Movie studios have been trying to enforce "geographic restrictions" for years. They created "Regional Codes" for DVD's so a DVD bought in one region will not play on a DVD player used in another region.

Why did they so that? So the Movie Studios could charge different prices for the same DVD! If the region is wealthy, the movie studies will stick it to the consumer and charge a higher price.

Remember Movie Studios have a MONOPOLY over each DVD title.

This has forced many users to buy DVD Region Free drives so that they can watch the DVD's they legally bought abroad!

Apple, the Record Companies and the Movie Studios are trying to do the same thing with online downloads! What a rip-off!

As I stated in my rant yesterday in the original iTunes 8 posting, I'm a US Citizen living as an Expat in SE Asia. I'm still legally a New York State Resident (Own property, Driver's License, Car Registration, Voter, etc) and have valid Credit Cards that use my NY address.

If Apple, the record companies, & the studios want to go after pirates or people using loopholes who don't have a true US address, fine. There are people here locally who sign up for a US acct using iTunes gift cards, who don't have a US address or credit card. Some have never even been to the States.

But there's a sizable population of Americans living abroad who are Apple & iTunes customers. In my condo complex, there are literally dozens of people I know who are in my same situation. That is, people who have permanent addresses in the US, who are living abroad temporarily due to work and/careers. I met with some last night and they were as PO'ed as much as I was.

Again, none of us are doing anything illegal. We're not distributing Movies, Shows, or Music. We just want to continue being paying customers without fear of having our US store accounts being suspended in violation of the ToS.

Utterly stupid, I am a British resident, living in Australia and I also have a valid US credit card why shouldn't i be able to buy things from other stores?

I rarely use Bittorrent, it is too slow and too unreliable when iTunes works so well but deny me the right to buy from the US store and I will just P2P.

Record companies are idiots, they deserve everything they get and artists will go independent and cut them out eventually.

I'm currently in the UK and it appears that only the HD episodes are geo-blocked (they show up grayed out in my Shopping Cart and marked as 'Unavailable') but I am still able to download/purchase standard definition TV shows as well as music.

I think most of the geographic limitation has to do with the content providers and to whom the monies are to go to.
Content providers dont always own worldwide licenses for the content, then may only have licenses for one country. So if someone for France buys American content (that maybe available in France), the money should go to the content provider in France and not in America.
I believe Apple is just trying to cover their collective asses incase there is any legal hang-ups on who owes who money in the future.

Or then again it could be a worldwide conspiracy.

Yea, definitely one of the two.

I think it's pretty ridiculous, especially in times where companies have to fight to get users to buy music, and now they're telling you that you are convicting a crime by not buying the stuff from your country's iTunes store?
I can order CD's in the US and ship them home to Germany. I hate synchronized movies, so why would I buy an American TV show like Heroes that's in German when for the same price (with the $ being so low actually less) I can have the original. I guess that's the problem though, you can buy a song for .99€ or $.99, which would be .70€, so 29 cents less.
I guess now with the App store and all, a lot of people are taking advantage of this, I'm pretty sure they'll get into some trouble for that. Plus, what are they gonna do about it? I can buy gift cards for the US store here and still use them everywhere else...

All this talk over a TOS agreement...

Meanwhile informed consumers continue to choose the convenient, DRM-free "rip-and-download underground," as you so condescendingly put it.

"Unfortunately, podcast-to-iPod sync settings are still one for all and all for one, but this is a step in the right direction."

What do you mean by this? I've been selectively sync'ing specific podcasts to my iPhone for a long time now.