Sunday 18 November 2007

iTunes software piracy incentives

People steal software for many reasons. Of course it's generally easier to copy and share your mp3 collection than it is to walk out of HMV without paying for a bagful of CDs. Mailing application serial numbers around is certainly convenient for the morally corruptible amongst us and sharing account details for online systems is a well established practise.

So where does iTunes fit into this battle for moral righteousness? It only takes a casual browse around the iTunes store to see how many people think their pricing structure may help to promote piracy. Let's look at an example:

Lost series 1 Pay £32.99 on iTunes for video quality that is inferior to standard DVD (PAL resolution)

Pay £34.98 on Amazon for the full DVD boxed set

So for £1.99 extra you get a nicely boxed DVD set for your bookshelf that you can watch on a PC, Mac, TV or even projector with no scaling problems whatsoever. Additionally, there is lots of free software that will convert your Lost episodes to a format that can be viewed on any video capable iPod.

There is, of course, convenience to consider. With a few button clicks and a decent broadband connection you can download episodes of Lost directly to your computer and quickly switch them across to your iPod via firewire or USB2. It still seems a ridiculously high price to pay in my opinion when I can get next day delivery from Amazon for a 'real' product. This seems to be the general concensus of the general public too according to the comments that accompany many of the downloads that iTunes offer.

And there's more! Video downloads to the UK from iTunes cost considerably more than from the US. Alarmingly, in the US this same download costs $34.99 - meaning us poor souls in the UK pay almost double for an identical product. Come on Apple, be fair!

It's also bizarre that you are not able to make legitimate backups of your downloaded video to DVD. It seems that the very steps that iTunes are making to try and prevent piracy are alienating many of their potential customers.

Whilst these issues will not convert me to a life of piracy, I will certainly not be using the iTunes service unless some serious changes are made.

Friday 9 November 2007

Temperature and double standards

A friend sent me a link to a funny but alarming article in The Register today regarding a young woman's invalid scratchcard claim. Basically each scratchcard has a temperature printed on it; the idea is to scratch away a small window to reveal a number that is hidden beneath it. If the uncovered number is less than the printed temperature then the card owner wins a prize. The temperature on the woman's card was -8 degrees and the number she uncovered was -6; she was not happy when Camelot refused to acknowledge her claim. She was reported to say "I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher, not lower, than -8, but I'm not having it."

Being an Englishman, hot Summer days are a rare experience and we tend to report the temperature in farenheit, for example "It must be 90 degrees today, quick get me another beer!" Yet on a cold, frosty morning as we're scraping the ice off the car windows we're equally likely to exclaim how it must be at least -5 which of course is measured in centigrade.

Perhaps 32 degrees centigrade doesn't seem quite as hot as 90 degrees farenheit and maybe 23 farenheit feels a lot warmer than -5 centigrade? I guess turning up the central heating always feels more justified when it's zero outside rather than 32 degrees.

:-)