I just noticed that, for example, the Oscar-nominated short films were available for purchase on the UK iTunes store.
They aren’t in the Canadian store.
While this may amuse or not bother some, I find it frustrating and plain wrong.
Steve (Jobs) must have a view on this. He must* (*over stretching myself there?) know that content availability variations from physical location to physical location with a system that has no physical boundaries is essentially a ‘BUMP’ in our road. Someone needs to smooth that out.
I cannot buy a shirt from Marks & Spencer in Bath (UK) right now because I am not physically there. Fine. Digital purchases, however, are a paradigm that many are getting very used to and doing a great deal. When such a system has entirely obscure limitations layered over it, akin to those relating to physical purchases, and when there is no clear, reasonable explanation, it ends up being annoying in proportion to the enjoyment gained from the ease of digital purchases, which is a lot.
The irony that the Oscars are on the same continent as me and not available here but available in UK is just another layer of ‘DUH?’ in this already-wrong area.
Perhaps Steve (or his iTunes team) allow this to happen in the way it does because their hands are tied by the licensing lawyers and allowing unexplained or poor signposting frustration to build is a way for them to show those people that this must be fixed. That’s the kindest spin I can imagine for Steve & Co. I guess however, that there is not a plot to pressure the lawyers and instead, wrongly in my opinion, Steve is allowing content to come out where it’s allowed by the lawyers and not where it’s not. A shame, imagine if he refused to serve content to one store without being able to serve it to all. The lawyers would get the pressure (via their paymasters who were not selling content anymore) and the result would (er, might) ‘knock their silly heads together’ and result in an equal playing field for all.
This is of course irrelevant to those not privileged enough to be in the position where they can buy and use this stuff. So it’s hard to drum up any sympathy for my position versus someone unable to buy food let alone a CD etc. That is another tract of unfairness and of course a much more important one. But it does not mean that because Steve’s policy with iTunes content is a tiny wrong by comparison, that it is no longer wrong, just that it must be one thing at least that I hope he is not satisfied with.
All that said. If Steve can prioritise and invent a way to level the world for benefit to all, then I would prefer him to raise that up higher on his todo list than this problem with iTunes content — just don’t cross the iTunes one out until it’s done, eh?
