iTunes is Illegal Under UK Copyright Law

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iTunes should be illegal everywhere, not because of copyright law, but because it's terrible. ;)

The High Court recently overturned private copying exceptions introduced last year by the UK Government, once again outlawing the habits of millions of citizens. The Intellectual Property Office today explains that ripping a CD in iTunes is no longer permitted, and neither is backing up your computer if it contains copyrighted content.
 
Steve said:
iTunes should be illegal everywhere, not because of copyright law, but because it's terrible. ;)

The High Court recently overturned private copying exceptions introduced last year by the UK Government, once again outlawing the habits of millions of citizens. The Intellectual Property Office today explains that ripping a CD in iTunes is no longer permitted, and neither is backing up your computer if it contains copyrighted content.
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WTF? IT disaster recovery in the UK must be super fun...
 
UK is a mess. Streets of London resemble more of a jungle than what used to be UK.
 
the government won't even follow these rules themselves
 
so every company that offers backup software or services and any cloud based storage provider can be sued.
 
Apple should suspend iTunes in the UK, and then see how quickly the UK changes its tune. lol
 
necrosis said:
Ahh yes. The people that hate on iTunes because it is the bandwagon thing to do or because its Apple. Never offering a solid logical reason why it is bad. :rolleyes:
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Well actually, I just thought Steve's opening post was funny more than anything else.

Though I have installed iTunes and had very bad luck with it on three different computers (32-bit Vista and 7). In all three cases, installing iTunes prevented anything plugged into a USB or SATA port from working except the primary hard drive, keyboard, and mouse. ROM drives, USB flash, and a cable modem connected to a USB port all stopped working. Fixing it was as simple as uninstalling iTunes except that the Apple updater was still on the computer in one case and reinstalled it later when a new version was released, causing all the same problems again. I dunno if that's a solid, logical reason or not, but it seems pretty sensible to me as I like optical drives for watching the occasional DVD or exercise video and I use USB flash to move files between computers.
 
necrosis said:
Ahh yes. The people that hate on iTunes because it is the bandwagon thing to do or because its Apple. Never offering a solid logical reason why it is bad. :rolleyes:
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Because Windows Media Player is better than it.

iTunes is the worse designed software I have ever used. Well besides a program called Deltek Vision, that was a piece.
 
necrosis said:
Ahh yes. The people that hate on iTunes because it is the bandwagon thing to do or because its Apple. Never offering a solid logical reason why it is bad. :rolleyes:
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Have you ever looked at the file structure for iTunes? Maybe it has gotten better recently, but the last time I looked at it it was a huge jumbled disorganized mess in regards to how it stores files.

And from experience, the quality of ripped CDs is very subpar when compared to proper ripping software.
 
necrosis said:
Ahh yes. The people that hate on iTunes because it is the bandwagon thing to do or because its Apple. Never offering a solid logical reason why it is bad. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Just because it's Apple, is reason enough for me :)

But, the #1 reason I'd have to point to, is all the Windows 7 64 bit systems I had to rebuild due to iTunes years ago.
There was well know (but not admitted to by Apple) problem with iTunes on Windows 7 64 bit systems. The default install would install a 32 bit version that replaced/corrupted a bunch of dll's in the OS, causing Windows to randomly blue screen. Never did find a fix, other than wiping the system and reloading Windows.

Since I've seen many other unstable computers in the office fixed by uninstalled iTunes, I still consider it malware. If someone is having an intermittent problem (crashes, hanging, etc.) that I can't find another cause for, the problem can usually be fixed by uninstalling iTunes.
 
necrosis said:
Ahh yes. The people that hate on iTunes because it is the bandwagon thing to do or because its Apple. Never offering a solid logical reason why it is bad. :rolleyes:
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Or because iTunes is total garbage. I have to reinstall it almost everyone I want to add music to my ipod.
 
And people say America is a terrible place in terms of copyright BS, good lord.
 
Won't even bother following the silly iTunes link. Clearly that article is click bait. (Not [H], but the idiots making that claim.)

Few little extra facts... starting with El'Reg's version of the same news item
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/19/govt_loses_home_taping_battle/


October 2014 the government passed a bill to change the Law that you can copy your CDs and other music to different formats for personal use. (Something that has been unofficially allowed before then anyway). What has happened this week is the recording industry took the UK government to court and got the law overturned.

So really we are just back to where we were last year. Plod is not going to arrest you for having a copied CD. Or using iTunes. (Though use of iTunes *should* become a criminal offence... lol)


Longer boring item on what was actually made law by the UK Government last year *allowing* home format shifting. Really just refining in law what everyone does anyway.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/1...tion_of_copyrighted_material_come_into_force/
 
Tiberian said:
And people say America is a terrible place in terms of copyright BS, good lord.
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It is because of American "influence" that countries like the UK and Canada are changing their copyright laws to be more draconian.
 
necrosis said:
Ahh yes. The people that hate on iTunes because it is the bandwagon thing to do or because its Apple. Never offering a solid logical reason why it is bad. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

The Windows version is slow and full of bloatware. I absolutely hated dealing with it back when I had an iPhone 3g. It was honestly one of the main reasons I never bought another iPhone.
 
rezerekted said:
It is because of American "influence" that countries like the UK and Canada are changing their copyright laws to be more draconian.
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The Government changed the law in November to *allow* copying. The Record Industry took them to caught to get the law thrown out. So back to no change. You can still use iTunes if you really insist :)
 
DeathFromBelow said:
The Windows version is slow and full of bloatware. I absolutely hated dealing with it back when I had an iPhone 3g. It was honestly one of the main reasons I never bought another iPhone.
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If you were Apple and had the chance to write a bundle of software to install on your oppositions Operating System... now would you put your best programmers on this? Or your worst? Are these "bugs" or "features"?

Like other people here I have had major headaches with broken iTunes (and that Bonjour mess) on many Windows PCs. And it is always a case of ALL of the mess of Apple junk has to be installed even if it was just to buy a single Audiobook via iTunes.

Huge mess of a piece of software... but clever marketing means the average Joe doesn't realise he has a better choice.
 
iTunes may be utter shit, but these laws are horrendous and affect a helluva lot more than just iTunes. iTunes *is not* the issue here. Apple just happens to be the big target the media can use to hook people in.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
iTunes may be utter shit, but these laws are horrendous and affect a helluva lot more than just iTunes. iTunes *is not* the issue here. Apple just happens to be the big target the media can use to hook people in.
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You can't really blame media outlets for doing that kinda stuff since its like super effective at getting the average person to click a linky. :)
 
necrosis said:
Ahh yes. The people that hate on iTunes because it is the bandwagon thing to do or because its Apple. Never offering a solid logical reason why it is bad. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Once my library hit 100GB it started to crap out a little, at 200GB it became unbearable. Now my music library is almost 400GB.. No thanks.
 
nutzo said:
Just because it's Apple, is reason enough for me :)

But, the #1 reason I'd have to point to, is all the Windows 7 64 bit systems I had to rebuild due to iTunes years ago.
There was well know (but not admitted to by Apple) problem with iTunes on Windows 7 64 bit systems. The default install would install a 32 bit version that replaced/corrupted a bunch of dll's in the OS, causing Windows to randomly blue screen. Never did find a fix, other than wiping the system and reloading Windows.

Since I've seen many other unstable computers in the office fixed by uninstalled iTunes, I still consider it malware. If someone is having an intermittent problem (crashes, hanging, etc.) that I can't find another cause for, the problem can usually be fixed by uninstalling iTunes.
Click to expand...

This happened to me when I first got my iPod Classic. I was running XP 64-bit at the time and it wrecked my install, necessitating a repair install and the complete removal of iTunes as well as its associated software (QuickTime, etc). Back then there was a plug-in to manage my iPod via WinAmp that worked superbly.

Most of our office users have iPhones and some of them do not have a personal computer at home. As a result we have iTunes included in our default deployment image. There are still issues with iTunes on 64-bit Windows 7. It is definitely better than it was before, but I would be happier not to have to deal with it at all.
 
MrCaffeineX said:
Most of our office users have iPhones and some of them do not have a personal computer at home. As a result we have iTunes included in our default deployment image. There are still issues with iTunes on 64-bit Windows 7. It is definitely better than it was before, but I would be happier not to have to deal with it at all.
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Since I work for a software company, I can't lock down the systems for most users, since they need the ability to install newer versions of our software. Many of them have iPhones, and a lot end up installing iTunes, since you can't just plug your iPhone into a USB port and use it like a flash drive like Android.

So, I've just taken the stance that it's not supported. If I think it's causing a problem, I uninstall it as part of the troubleshooting process. It's not on any images I deploy, so if I upgrade them to a new system, they will have to re-install iTunes and hope it doesn't break anything.
 
timta2 said:
The Mac version of iTunes is also shit.
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And here I was thinking it was only the Windows version. I still remember the iTunes/Vista debacle about 10 years ago - it opened my eyes about them as a company and their culture.

As for it being illegal in the UK, good. F*ck 'em.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Ahem... modern copyright law should be illegal.
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This. So sick of how draconian it has become. The original intent of copyright was to stop people from taking your work and saying it's theirs but that has completely changed now. It's more about censoring content now and finding ways to send people to jail or sue them to oblivion so megacorps who have that power can make more billions while sending people on the street for downloading 1 song. Patent law is just as bad now. GE recently patented the concept of searching a database by date field, for example. I'm not joking.
 
necrosis said:
Ahh yes. The people that hate on iTunes because it is the bandwagon thing to do or because its Apple. Never offering a solid logical reason why it is bad. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I don't use iTunes, but I've seen this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZqfvgUOWU

Constantly pushing updates that may cause problems or take away features you use sounds like a pretty good reason to hate a piece of software to me.
 
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