“Apple Inc.’s iTunes online music store is back up and running again in China after it was apparently blocked last week by local authorities,” Verne Kopytoff reports for The San Francisco Chronicle.
“However, the Web page for downloading a pro-Tibet album, which is suspected of prompting the crackdown, remains unavailable on the service,” Kopytoff reports.
“Chinese users started having problems logging in to iTunes last week, immediately raising suspicions that the Beijing government was trying to censor ‘Songs for Tibet,’ an album released by the Art of Peace Foundation, an organization that supports Tibetan independence,” Kopytoff reports.
“China has long walled off Web sites that diverge from the official position on topics including Tibet, Taiwan and the Tiananmen Square protests,” Kopytoff reports.
“Cupertino’s Apple has no iTunes stores specifically for China. Instead, Chinese Internet users must visit the U.S. site or those for other countries,” Kopytoff reports. “In addition to being inaccessible on iTunes, the ‘Songs for Tibet‘ album cannot be reached from China on Amazon.com or Google’s YouTube video service.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: “Songs for Tibet” can be found via the U.S. iTunes Store here. Funds raised from the album will go to support peace initiatives and Tibetan cultural preservation projects important to the Dalai Lama.
China blocks sales. Apple blocks sales. What’s the difference?
Users regulated by the state. Users regulated by Apple.
Authoritarianism vs Totalitarianism.
Works out the same for end users.
@StarkReality, What the F*** are you on about? You don’t make sense! nor do you make non-sense!?*
To comment sensibly, take time to organise your thoughts! and Oh! Drink Camel’s Milk.
@StarkReality
Wow, you really can’t see the distinction between a company protecting itself from copyright liability vs a totalitarian ruling clique unilaterally deciding what billions of people can see and hear?
from the way it sounds, China has figured out a way to block a specific album within iTunes without blocking the entire iTunes app, and this is China/firewall doing it not Apple/iTunes blocking (since China’s users are using USA & others iTunes to get the albums)
The stench of troll is strong today.
@ Stark”Reality”:
Is that sarcasm? There’s in your comment even remotely rooted in reality. Apple is protecting its customers from having potentially damaging software loaded onto devices they’ve paid hundreds of dollars for. The Chinese government censors anything and everything that might be remotely damaging to its power or authority. Get a clue.
Sorry, my comment should read “There’s nothing in your comment…”
Isn’t this Apple caving to a totalitarian government though? How is Apple getting off scott-free here?
I thought iTunes was available or not and that picking and choosing what was on the service was Apple’s purview. Doesn’t this mean that Apple basically agreed to censor the album?
Why didn’t Nixon think of banning protest songs?
If the left can do it why can’t the right?
@Jeremy
Apparently China is blocking traffic by blocking calls to and from the specific URL associated with the album. You can probably simulate this at home with the built-in Mac or other firewall software (if you have the free time). So, Apple is not doing anything here.
Do u goofs not understand that it does not matter what Apple does or doesn’t do to iTunes, the traffic has to pass thru switches etc. which in this case are owned by Chinese gov, so they can selectively block whatever they. Once the info leaves the Apple servers, there is nothing Apple can do to stop this sort of thing. Kind of like how the NSA monitors all sorts of things, electronically sniffing for certain phrases etc. Freedom of speech indeed! Have a look at this book, a bit older now, but full of insight and truth. A family member of mine, employed in a similar facility in my country, was shocked that what was in it was actually published!
http://www.amazon.ca/Puzzle-Palace-James-Bamford/dp/0140067485/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219765164&sr=8-1
If you’d take the time to study history, @StarkReality is not too far from the truth. More often than not authoritarianism and totalitarianism start out with good intentions.
China is f**ing with our heads.
Make more pro-Tibet albums, that’s what I say.
Every should accept that if China had been a democracy, it would end up with civil war over and over again. Just look at taiwan, they’re riddled with corruption in politics. It’s just part of the chinese culture, they haven’t been westernised to accept democracy.
In China it’s death to any Government official found guilty of corruption, including their entire family.
Likewise, we ought to except the small changes of progress rather than shoving down protest messages down their throats.
@bioness:
“In China it’s death to any Government official found guilty of corruption, including their entire family.”
Really?
We ought to except that?
I do take exception to that.
But I do not ever accept that.
It’s wrong.
*sigh*
Do not ever take your right to free speech for granted and never let it go.
Well as I have said before the Chinese, thankfully are being relatively mild with there reaction. From what I understand of the affair:
– The Dali Lama encouraged people to go to the games and NOT protest.
– The album was released a few days before the Olympics and that’s fine. Free versions of the song were provided to athletes. Not a very bright thing to do.
– The athletes were encouraged (by those releasing the album) to listen to the song as a form of protest. Gee last time I looked the Olympics were about sports.
This is really sad. It is one thing to have some fan do some inappropriate protesting it is another for the actual athletes to come to a sporting event and do a protest like that. I view that as low as taking performance enhancing drugs.
The Chinese are taking steps to modernize themselves. How are they going to embrace such values of freedom of speech if that value is used irresponsibly?
Stick to the sports at the Olympics. That is what is appropriate. I sure hope we don’t see athletes from the free world protesting the illegal and immoral intrusion into Iraq by the evil AENUS alliance at the next summer Olympics.
Thank goodness the next Olympics (the winter ones) are going to be held at a civilized peace loving nation.
More brainless blathering BS from the site troll.
You cretinous d*psh*t. You have the gall to compare communism to Apple business practices?
You really are clueless.
The song “Its a wonderfull world” was forbiden in USA after sept the 11th…
Oh! and by the way Olympic games with the flame where introduced by Hitler in 1936… just another nationalist power… So don’t dream too much of a nice ideal of pur sports…
@Spark
Your quote: Wow, you really can’t see the distinction between a company protecting itself from copyright liability vs a totalitarian ruling clique unilaterally deciding what billions of people can see and hear?
Do you think it’s really different in your place, Just because some $powered liars give you choice amongst tens or hundreds of silly TV programmes?
To be openly forced by a regime has at least one advantage: you become critic and develope some will of freedom.
Those who believe to be free, but are totally conditionned, are much more to feel sorry for…
I thought you could only purchase iTunes tracks in China from the US store if you had a US billing address?
You know, all of those “nationality” restrictions that iTunes has like you can’t even send someone an iTunes gift certificate if your billing address is in a different country than the recipient. Hopefully one day it’ll be a truly global store and all of the silly licensing stuff will just work in the background or not exist at all.
I don’t support censoring sales of course, though I have to say, people should get some perspective about the Tibet issue as a whole. China may be a bit harsh to Tibet true, though China’s occupation HAS done some good for Tibet.
Tibet’s practices of slavery and indentured serfs (basically slaves as well) were ended by China, as was the continuous religious warfare and corruption that the Dalai Lama and high-ranking monks exhibited (A generally very poor country except the military and Dalai Lama lived in splendour). Nevermind that the Dalai Lama represents an extremely violent sect of Buddhism that has been known to burn Buddhist scriptures that don’t tie in to it’s political needs. Tibet a land of peace? Pft, Iraq is more peaceful than Tibet used to be.
I don’t support China’s treatment of Tibet, but it’s still a much better state than Tibet was beforehand, so I don’t really support the ‘Free Tibet’ album as a whole.
USA: Didn’t the ‘United States’ come about after a civil war where a number of states wanted independence from the union? Free Utah? I’ll take two.
UK: Didn’t the Falklands war come about because two nations thought they owned the same rocky island? Free the Falklands?
Pakistan: Doesn’t the conflict in Kashmir exist because both India and Pakistan think they both own the same region? Free Kashmir?
Oz: Didn’t the war in East Timor begin because Indonesia thought they owned the region despite the locals voting for independence in a referendum?
Add Northern Ireland, Georgia (USSR), Israel, Kuwait, Iraq, etc. To the victor belongs the spoils, otherwise the West had better give back their countries to the indigenous populations.