Let's put an end to country restrictions on cultural goods !

Apparently the EU is launching a probe on Itunes for possible violation of competition rules. The issue is that Apple prevents buyers from one country from buying music on another store store from another country. For example if your Itunes account is in the UK (with a UK credit card) you will be prevented from buying the same song on the French Itunes store (which are cheaper btw). Off course this is against EU regulations.

I personally live half of my time in New York and the other half in Paris. I have two apartments, two credit credit cards, two mobile phone plan, etc... For Itunes, I had to choose which country I can buy from and this a major pain in the neck. As I have chosen the US Itunes store, I just can't buy music on the French Itunes store anymore !

I think it is time to rethink the territoriality concept in cultural goods. It's been a long time since the internet has rendered the country/regions restriction concept completely obsolete and useless. Like DRM, it is even counterproductive for content owner and fosters piracy, leaving a lot of money on the table. And content owner should also remember that the language barrier is probably the best protection. Who will actually go to a Chinese web site to order a cheaper song/video/game anyway ?

Isn't it time content owner be ready to take the same bold step as DRM and say no to country/regions restrictions ?

Comments

[Amy]

Hey, I agree with this.

I have lived half my year in Canada, and then Peru, which by the way - doesn't have an iTunes store.
I just can't get why Canada and the US have a different iTunes store, to me they are basically the same market.
I just tried purchasing a CD, and sadly it is only available in iTunes USA, which sucks balls big time.

[BJ]

That is really unfair and wrong to do. We should have the right buy music where we want. I don't this is going to help the copyrights but instead push people to find "other" ways to the music that they want online!!