The timing of both Cindy's post along with a conversation I had with a co-worker last night are the seeds for this post.
iTunes. I am a sucker for convenience. I love that if I get a hankering to watch a specific movie at 1am, I can go to the iTunes store, rent it and watch it immediately. The fees are on par with those of old school video rentals. For me, this is a great feature that I enjoy and find useful in my life.
However, when I first bought my current Mac, I was also given a gift card to iTunes for $100 for a promotion. This amount encourage me to buy the first season of Sons of Anarchy. I quickly became a SOA fan and with my remaining free funds, soon found myself buying the next available season.
Soon after, I was conversing with another SOA fan about the show, and upon finding out that she was not up to date, offered to let her borrow the season she had not watched....or not.
There are many reasons not to BUY iTunes. Unlike a rental, where you expect limited access, buying a show or movie only allows you to access it on five different devices. So unless you want to loan out your device, you can not share your iTunes movie collection with your friends, despite you are paying the same price as if you had purchased a hard copy that has that benefit.
Bruce Willis, a few months back, used his celebrity to address this problem. Evidently, he has an extensive iTunes music collection, and wants to pass it on to his daughters upon his death. Under the current law, this is not possible.
Hopefully, the laws will catch up and address the problems that the new technology we are enjoying create. Apple may also be responding to the concerns people have about sharing different content with one another. It will be interesting to see if they will find a resolution to this ongoing concern for Apple customers Until then, if you want to build a collection, iTunes may not be the way to go.
I remember discussing this in class and I found it pretty outrageous. If Apple wants to 'borrow' out their products for a fee, fine. But that's something that customers should be aware of, especially since most people assume that if a purchase is made, it becomes their property. If I buy a bag of chips, I'm not 'borrowing' it...I'm eating it! Maybe this means we all are going to have to start reading those agreements before we click accept!
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