Music Without Borders -- How Amazon Can Go One-Up On iTunes
from the drm-at-the-border dept
Recently, we mentioned that Amazon's MP3 Download Store got the DRM-free part right but screwed up on the pricing model -- the real Achilles heel of iTunes. As it turns out there's another angle from which Amazon could go one-up on iTunes: extend the offering across more countries. The moment I heard about the launch, I enthusiastically hit Amazon's MP3 Download Store and eagerly clicked on a "Buy MP3" link only to be greeted with a "We are sorry... We could not process your order because of geographical restrictions on the product which you were attempting to purchase. Please refer to the terms of use for this product to determine the geographical restrictions. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you."Wow! What's that again? Geographical restrictions on music? Because I am a citizen of India and not a citizen of a country where the music labels think that DRM-free music should be made downloadable? That's just dumb. Similarly, a long time ago, iTunes informed me that I don't have a "foreign" credit card and hence it won't let me download stuff although I am willing to pay for it. There are more than a few ironies here:
- The music that I am trying to purchase is readily available DRM-free on CDs at a store nearby. So why place an embargo on the digital one?
- I can order stuff from Amazon and have them international-couriered to India, but I can't download a digital file off Amazon because I am in India.
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Filed Under: drm, international restrictions, music
Companies: amazon, apple
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Lots of assumptions being made
He has made it personal and an attack against his country, maybe because he is aware of piracy issues in India.
BUT.. Most of these companies are not really legally global. They are broken up around the world. This is also a trial.
It may just be that they have not negotiated contracts with the subsidiaries that own the rights in India. Maybe it the trail goes good they will.
Odd how we can assume stuff.
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Ranting at the Wrong Group
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Re: Ranting at the Wrong Group
He pretty clearly says that Amazon should have the clout to push the record labels into the right direction.
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Hamstrung by the labels
Unfortunately, the retailers are hamstrung by the record labels, who own the rights to the tracks and impose onerous conditions on their retailers. Selling music isn't like selling an camera-- the retailer never "owns" the product.
If you want to complain that someone doesn't "get it", start with Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI.
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It will be difficult to try to have some sort of automated, international fast-track licensing system because the organizations that have the power to change it might have less power after the changes are made, and that is not a chance they want to take. I think the old publishing/licensing stake holders will all have to die off before real innovation can happen (since it is pretty clear they would rather risk dying than losing power). But hats off to Apple for being able to work within the confines of the current regime. The stake holders need to keep in mind: you can't compete with free (p2p).
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Digital
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Copyright Rides Again
In various ways this is illegal among the wave of free trade agreements that have been signed in many of these markets (Australia is one) but given this took many years to get sorted out with CD's and the like (remember the region codes locking media to players) I don't expect anything to happen soon.
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The RIAA / MPAA version of the real world
1. I am writing this comment from South Africa, which is DVD zone 2;
2. A couple of years back (I am not sure of the current situation) South Africa was producing DVD's for zone 2, which includes the UK;
3. The [locally-produced] DVD's were all exported, i.e. were not made available locally. So I was in the ridiculous situation of only being able to purchase a locally-produced DVD from Amazon UK.
4. To make it worse, it is still normally cheaper to purchase & ship a DVD from Amazon UK than it is to purchase locally ...
Incidentally, I don't think that it is even possible to purchase a 'strictly zone 2' DVD player locally: all are multi-zone, and have been that way since the advent of DVD players 8)
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PayPal.. The solution to your problems
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Re: PayPal.. The solution to your problems
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uh... No...
Don't be stoopid and don't blame either Amazon or iTunes.
Blame the music distributors. They are the ones that decide which music is distributed where.
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Even if you have a U.S. credit card...
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Actually amazon just recently implemented this.
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UPDATE on Amazon's geographical methods
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Re: UPDATE on Amazon's geographical methods
I am an American temporarily in Sweden. I was able to successfully download a free video several days ago, but today when I tried to purchase, I was geographically restricted. It's definitely not the credit card (mine is a U.S. bank with a U.S. billing address as I still have a residence in the U.S.).
The proxy server you tried probably did not hide your IP address from Amazon.
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I've got a US Amazon account, with a US billing address, a US IP address, but a UK credit card. Amazon customer service told me this UK card is the reason I can't purchase an MP3 download from them. I was wondering whether or not getting a Paypal Credit/debit card would help me. Everytime I login to my US Paypal account, they ask me if I want one. I'm thinking of accepting the offer, just so I've got a US based credit card.
The question is, does Amazon consider a Paypal card as a proper US card when it's linked to a US Paypal account with a US Billing address. If not, then I won't bother getting a card with them.
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