Got time to spare? Read the iTunes store agreement

I recommend Textwrangler -- it lets you "diff" the old versus the new agreement text. Unix will do it too, but Textwrangler is quick, easy, and has a convenient side-by-side display.

It only takes a few minutes to verify that the recent changes are (mostly) lawyer paranoia and updates to the text to cover changes in terminology -- for example, "content" instead of "video".

If you ever get beyond whining for it's own sake, the target should be the lawyers and the litigious society they've created for their own benefit - not companies which, in general, would be happy to rid themselves of the breed that infests their daily lives like political lice.

I noticed once that the agreement you accept and the one emailed may be slightly different.

Hey...I think most of you are missing the point. OK, so Apple wants to change the terms — fine. But if you are mobile or working on a short deadline, Apple doesn't care — if you need that file or service from Apple right now, the only way you can get it is to press that agree button. Apple has essentially defined the time to adjust the agreement in a non-negotiable, unilateral fashion by imposing the absolute requirement that you either agree right that instant or kiss your service (and in the case of MobileMe, paid service) away. Perhaps they could have provided the opportunity to peruse the altered agreement BEFORE your service or access would be rudely interrupted until you've had an opportunity to first look over the proposed changes.

Are you all idiots? Apple is one of the most - sued companies of our time. You don't think they need to protect themselves from sue-happy morons who don't know that coffee is hot or that cigarette smoking is hazardous to one's health? Every time a new stupidity threat poses itself, they need to modify the agreement. How exactly has a single one of these changes directly harmed any of you? I bet not a one of you can come up with an instance, yet you all seem to have time to bitch about something that's likely irrelevant to nearly everyone.

Huh? Don't know about the iPhone, but they do provide a summary of the changes when this thing pops up on my iPad.

The main problem is, that this agreement seems to be translated by a bunch of idiots. In the German version, they allow you to run apps bought in the Mac appstore on ONE computer. Just because they aren't able to properly translate the agreement.

I'm not certain, but I have a hunch that this is illegal under UK law. I think that there is an obligation to provide a Plain English summary of key points. Anyone know the facts?

Certainly I think it's pretty atrocious treatment by Apple which has disgusted me every time I've gone through the same thing, so full marks to Mel for highlighting this abusive behaviour.

I can sum this up in one phrase: don't be a dick.

Lol, if you hadn't heard by now...one page on your iPhone doesn't quite equal the same screen real estate as your standard monitor, and thus, they are left with two options. Option (a.) make the content as small as possible so that you can make the available space equal to that of a standard page format, or (b.) Increase the number of pages to facilitate a legible font size. Similar to the way iBooks works, they decided to go with option (b.) thankfully.

Regarding the comment about buying a car and not having this much documentation... I'm curious if you also have a team of lawyers present at these auto purchases? I mean, we're talking about a world where everyone wants to sue someone for money, and a company that was valued at more than $300 billion dollars as of last week wanting to protect itself. Would you rather that this weren't in place, and everyone sue them into bankruptcy? Might not be writing blog posts about them any longer if that were the case... Not trying to sound like an ass here, just making a point.