Mauritius to Apple: Thanks for the iPhones, can we haz iTunes Store?

I'm from Mauritius. I've contacted Apple repeatedly about this ever since the launch of the App Store but I've received no reply. What they don't understand is that making the iTunes store available only in some specific countries actually encourages piracy.

What's really annoying is that the official carrier here (Orange Mauritius) includes paid apps' icons in their adverts and on billboards. :(

International iTunes store FTW!!

Here in Nigeria, we can get you access to the iTunes Store of your choice. Mrs. Abigail Wiilliams, a godly woman who is the widow of Engr. Evans Williams, is dying of oesophageal cancer. Her dying wish was to help the poor, the orphans, and those without access to an iTunes Store. She will send you an iTunes card worth US$1,000,000,000,000,000 as soon as you have paid the inheritance tax assessment of US$850. Send your full name, occupation, SSN, mailing address, credit card information, mother's maiden name, your phone number, and your shoe size to TheOfficialNigerianInheritanceTaxAssessment@hotmail.com.

No iTunes store does indeed encourage piracy. Here in Thailand we have access to the AppStore but there is no iTunes store access either on the iPhone or on your Mac. You can access other country stores (by signing out) and then subscribe to free podcasts, but you can't purchase anything. I would love to be able to buy songs from the iTunes store but I can't.

Instead I use a torrent client for mac to download albums for free or I occasionally buy a copy cd on the street. There is ONE record store in Bangkok that sells international labels and the selection is dreadful. New CD's are available illegally on the streets weeks, sometimes months before they will be seen in the shops. The same for DVD's.

When you cannot purchase a physical copy of an original CD from a shop (because of lack of choice) or cannot download from legal stores like iTunes, the best option is file sharing.

In Brazil we don't have iTunes Store.
Only AppStore but without the "Games" section.

"We don't got an app for that."

I am from the country of New Zealand and we DO have iTunes, but we do NOT have any tv shows. We have songs,apps,movies, but NO tv shows. I wish apple would put tv shows in the New Zealand iTunes store.

I live in guernsey (small island that belongs to England but off the coast of france). we have three mobile companies selling the iphone but we can't register on the UK itunes store with local addresses.

...and just what do you mean by "haz?" Is that some cryptic word from the Mauritius language? Or is this just some cute neologism known only to a few in the in-group? Sheesh.

South Africa's only got the App Store. I'm sure you can manage to roll out the complete iTunes Store in South Africa and elsewhere. Even Nokia has a Music Store up and running in SA.

As an indie label with a direct contract, we get pushed a new legal agreement every time the iTunes Store opens in a new country. Mexico was the most recent, I think, then amendments for tiered pricing. We have happily added every new region and option, and sell our music worldwide, but I suppose this is necessary for those labels who must have fine control for whatever reason. Some music is not always available for release in every country per writer, pub, artist agreements, leading to "not available in your country" errors and partial albums.

The bottom line is that Apple has to sort this out on an individual content provider level every single time, at least on the music side. I'm talking about downloading PDFs, signing them, mailing them in, etc., not just a checkbox on the web. You can imagine the huge amount of paperwork, stragglers, custom permissions, etc. I'm not saying it's not their job, but I wonder if this is slowing things down?