/ Cory Doctorow / 10:16 pm Tue Jan 26, 2010

UK iTunes customers get better terms of service than US suckers

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Ed Bayley has a great article up explaining how superior consumer protection laws in the UK mean that iTunes customers get a substantially better deal than their US counterparts (though the UK terms leave much to be desired):
For example, as with many TOS agreements, the iTunes U.S. Terms purport to allow Apple to terminate any part of the service, including access to any music or other content available through iTunes, at any time without warning. The U.K. Terms step back from that extreme position. In particular, the U.K. Terms do not allow Apple to affect a user's access to content already purchased. Furthermore, before terminating a user's access to iTunes, the U.K. Terms require there at least be "strong grounds," rather than mere "suspicion," to believe the user has violated the agreement, and also obligates iTunes to provide notice of any planned modification, suspension, or termination to the extent possible. In other words, the U.K. Terms provide customers at least some guidance as to the grounds for termination, rather than leave them to worry their access to iTunes can be terminated at any moment for any reason.

Another area where the new U.K. Terms make progress is in placing restrictions on Apple's ability to modify terms for existing customers. Many TOS agreements, including the iTunes U.S. Terms, claim the right to modify terms unilaterally, at any time, and without notice to the customer. It is refreshing to see the U.K. Terms require notice of the new terms before they become effective, as well as an opportunity to reject the changes without affecting purchases already made. The UK approach makes much more sense than the U.S. Terms' insistence on allowing Apple to act unilaterally without notice. And the fact that Apple can do it for customers in the UK means they can and should do it for customers elsewhere.

Terms of (Ab)Use: US and UK Consumers Dance to Different iTunes
Previously:

12

  1. The unilateral terms change thing has always seemed to me to fly completely in the face of contract law. Anyone know if it has been legally challenged?

  2. Heh, you’ve both got it good. The Taiwan iTunes Store has exactly 0 actual tunes in it. It’s all apps, but not all the good apps like Google Earth. Yeah, Apple, you were afraid of piracy? Well, I was going to buy the song from your store, but as you won’t sell it to me, piracy’s looking mighty good.

  3. Oh yeah UK? Well… at least we can still take photos of our iTunes in public places near important buildings!…

    At least, I think we still can…

  6. I guess that Apple didn’t have a lot of choice here. Consumer rights are quite extensive in the European Union, and if Apple would have tried to enforce regulations like the ones mentioned in Cory’s post, the first thing they would have earned would have been some kind of lawsuit. Europe may have its issues with free speech, censorship and banned video games – but if something can be bought legally, it’s quite difficult for the seller to screw you in a professional way.

  7. Considering that itunes encodes your name and full credit card number into your downloaded file, why purchase anything from them?

  8. I’m still pissed they won’t allow me to buy from any store but the US because of where my bank is based. Why do they hate my money? I’ll gladly pay whatever bs currency exchange charges they want to apply, but no.

  9. So, when the UK is not out taking away your civil rights and spying you they are protecting you from iTunes.
    Good trade off, I guess.

Comments are closed.