“Australia’s million iPod users are all breaking the law. A Herald Sun investigation has found — despite the popularity of the pastime — no legal method exists for Australian iPod owners to fill their player with music. And they could face court with anti-piracy groups refusing to rule out suing users of the popular player,” Liam Houlihan reports for The Herald Sun.
“None of the tunes available from legal download internet sites are compatible with the Apple iPod music players. The common method of ‘ripping’ tunes on to an iPod from the user’s own CD collection is illegal — as a breach of copyright laws. And unlike Britain and the US, Australia does not yet have an Apple iTunes store for iPod-compatible legal downloads. An estimated million people nationwide have already bought and put music on their iPods — the most popular model of MP3 player,” Houlihan reports. “But all methods of filling the player with music are illegal, which means Australia’s hundreds of thousands of iPod users are all technically criminals.”
Full article here.
Near the end of the article, iPod owner Claire Cohen is quoted, “When I got my iPod I got online ready to pay. Hours later and after being devastated to find out Apple doesn’t care about iPod owners, I had to give up.” Cohen’s wrong. It’s reportedly Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music that are holding up Apple’s iTunes Music Store Australia. It’s Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music that don’t care about iPod owners, certainly not Apple.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Sony and Warner holding out on Apple iTunes Music Store Australia – September 08, 2005
Apple iPod sales humming right along in Australia – July 05, 2005
