News
Apple recommends iPod owners not buy audiobooks
Apple has confirmed that a number of recently released audiobooks being sold on the iTunes Store will not properly play on iPods. The defective audiobooks — which include top sellers such as “The Four-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss and “The Assault on Reason” by Al Gore — will reportedly play in iTunes, but refuse to play on any iPod, as evidenced by purchaser comments on the iTunes Store. Apple is now suggesting that iPod owners hold off on purchasing any new audiobooks from iTunes. After customers contact iTunes support, Apple is also reversing charges for purchased defective audiobooks.
“I apologize for this recent error with audiobooks,” an iTunes support representative said in an email to an affected iLounger. “Our engineers are aware that many audiobook files have recently been affected with this error and are working on a fix for this slight problem. I would advise to please refrain from purchasing any audiobook for at least a week while our engineering team works to implement a correction for this situation. The iTunes Store takes the quality of our audiobooks seriously and will investigate the issue with this one, but I can’t say when or if the issue will be resolved. Please try again in a few weeks.”
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21
>If I buy an audiobook and then
>burn a copy for my mom, is that
>stealing?
Yes, you are “republishing” someone elses content.
>If it is, who should be punished?
>My mom, for illegally using
>pirated audio material
I think its most likely “recieving stolen goods”, but thats a stretch.
>or me for making it available
>to her?
You, copyright law is quite clear that you are not allowed to republish the content that you have duplicated and disseminated.
>Is it not a crime if I only
>lend her the audiobook
Nope.
>If I’m driving down the street
>with my windows open and I’m
>playing an audiobook and someone
>on the sidewalk hears it, am I
> broadcasting that audiobook?
Technically yes.
>Should the FCC fine me for not
>paying royalties?
No, for broadcasting without a license. its not the FCC’s job to chase royalty payments, just to ensure that unlicensed broadcasting (use of licensed bandwidth) does not go unpunished.
>If I check an audiobook out of
>a library and play it enough to
>memorize it and then recite the
>audiobook out loud to myself
>and/or my friends, is that
>stealing?
No, its unauthorised performance. Thats covered by copyright law. However, if you pay the owner $2, you can get a license - thats also locked down in US law, and its why the Sex Pistols could cover Frank Sinatra without fear.
The entertainment industry is dead set on convincing people that “music piracy is stealing” and then everyone hauls out all these lame “but nothing got stolen” arguments. Music Piracy is *not* stealing, its *unauthorised publishing* and it doesn’t matter that the original material is still in place, an offence has occurred according to the law.
The problem they face is that “downloading music” is clearly *not* “publishing” - hence the desperate need to change the publics mindset, to believe that “downloading” is “stealing”.
P2P networks are a confusing target from the laws perspective but since the bulk of them require the downloader to provide some upload bandwidth as well (BitTorrent, etc), that makes the downloader into a publisher which makes them guilty.
Posted by Jeff on May 29, 2007 at 3:55 PM (PDT)
22
It appears the problem is with the iPod update 1.1.3 firmware. My Old Time Radio programs work fine on my iPod that I did not update the firmware on but some refuse to play on the iPod I updated. This is the second time this has happened to me with a firmware update, I for one am going to stop updating. Anyone know how to restore back to the old firmware ?
Posted by MGlynn on May 29, 2007 at 7:02 PM (PDT)
23
Since this post went from broken audiobooks to piracy, here’s an article in TIME this week. Very interesting, and with a good point.
To be a little more on topic,
is this on all iPods?
What about Nanos and Shuffles?
Posted by jeremyjk1221 on May 29, 2007 at 7:15 PM (PDT)
24
Of course downloading isn’t stealing. It’s more like, hmm, well, getting something for nothing. You didn’t “steal” the song away from the artist (rather, the record label), you were offered a free copy from someone who legitimately bought the song.
However, if the RIAA wants to stop music piracy, they should start lowering the BS prices they charge for quality music. And it’s not just in the US, it happens abroad too. Eg. the price for Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero album in Australia is about 30 USD, whereas Avril Lavigne’s album (whatever it’s called) costs about 18 USD in the same store. Reasoning? NIN fans are more loyal, hence they will pay more. This what we get for being loyal fans? Being ripped off?
Posted by Nobody on May 29, 2007 at 7:54 PM (PDT)
25
I was reading a story to my children yesterday when one of them asked me if I had paid my exhibition fee.
I told them, “No, but it’s coming out of your allowance.”
After the incident, we lived happily ever after.™
Posted by id0 on May 29, 2007 at 10:42 PM (PDT)
26
nice i like the advice
Posted by tyler on September 7, 2007 at 6:04 PM (PDT)
27
Hi there! How do I go about getting credits for the books I already purchased. I am not sure what to do and it is very frustrating….The books are talking like they are on high speed or something.
Thanks Deidre
Posted by Deidre Gustus on September 1, 2010 at 2:28 PM (PDT)
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