I think you need to have a CC out of the UK. I think people buy iTunes Gift Cards from other countries on eBay in order to get credits for those stores media. But I'm not the one to ask as I've never tried to buy outside the US.
That's correct. If you want an account tied to a CC, the billing address for that CC has to be local to the store's country. Pre-paid cards work around that restriction by not requiring a verifiable payment address (you do have to register an address in the store's country, but you could look up Harrod's address in London and use that if you want. Maybe use the Queen's address at Buckingham?)
You're right because nothing like that would ever happen in America.
If an American hacker found the algorithm he would sell it to a shady business person who would then generate thousands of codes and create a ponzi scheme of iTunes digital codes and it would all be great until apple flipped the switch and the whole thing came crashing down bringing with it the insurance companies who were insuring bogus iTunes codes.
Ok maybe I'm exaggerating (a little).
Sorry, but I work for a major software developer, and issues with China blow away all others. The difference is that China makes no effort to discourage this kind of theft.
Ironically, in this era, this is the type of hacking that is needed to keep improving security. In a system driven by self-interest (even the enlightened variety), it is naive to expect that relying on a sense of fairplay and trust alone is sufficient.
One also needs the appropriate systems of verification.
Oh stop it with the 'we need burglars to show us how weak our locks are' justification for theft.
I wonder if anyone has access to what Europe thought of Americans up to the mid 1800 (just to pick a date). I seem to recall reading about how Amaricans were considered immoral ruffians and hooligans who couldn't be trusted.
Buying gift cards from out of the country is a great way of accessing other country's stores. I buy gift cards from Japan (through jbox) so that I can purchase J-Pop music from their store, even though I live in the US (I have a US account with one email address, and a Japan account with another).
Unfortunately, I suspect that one of the side effects of this scam is that Apple may now actively restrict access to stores to IP addresses local to that store's country. I'd better start downloading, as I've got about ¥7000 in my account right now!
That is my fear as well. I have about 10000 yen I need to burn before Apple lays down the law. What is worse is that I will not be able to purchase any more Jpop if this happens. That would mean going back to yesasia and such. Grrrr. Why can't people just be honest instead of ruining things for the rest of us?
Yes, except in America is would have a far less chance of succeeding because our law enforcement would track the financial transaction very fast. In China not so much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dogcow
You're right because nothing like that would ever happen in America.
If an American hacker found the algorithm he would sell it to a shady business person who would then generate thousands of codes and create a ponzi scheme of iTunes digital codes and it would all be great until apple flipped the switch and the whole thing came crashing down bringing with it the insurance companies who were insuring bogus iTunes codes.
It is really sad the US allows US Companies to do business with China and reap a tax benefit nonetheless. Sure, the labor is cheaper, however, that labor is cheaper because the workers have very little voice. You can't support American virtues (e.g. human rights) while buying Chinese products at the same time. So called Free Trade should only be done with Countries that respect Human life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GQB
Sorry, but I work for a major software developer, and issues with China blow away all others. The difference is that China makes no effort to discourage this kind of theft.
It is really sad the US allows US Companies to do business with China and reap a tax benefit nonetheless. Sure, the labor is cheaper, however, that labor is cheaper because the workers have very little voice. You can't support American virtues (e.g. human rights) while buying Chinese products at the same time. So called Free Trade should only be done with Countries that respect Human life.
Well Apple does and you surely support that by buying Apple products.
It's about time Apple went public with this problem.
I'm also wondering if this group is the same that hacked into my iTunes account and spewed out a real $200 iTunes gift card?
Apple was all over it and did right by me. The banks, etc. where I had to change everything were not only not nice, but plain old jackasses. Several lost my business that very same day.
Yeah, so it is a bit of a weird dynamic with China when you lay out all issues.
Devils advocate: What does that say about the other countries and companies that have no problems striking up deals for cheap materials and labour from China? And to a lesser a extent, those that buy the products knowing where they were produced. Are we not just supporting this corrupt system, making it more powerful while inadvertently justifying its actions?
Double Devils advocate: You have a good argument to be made, but the difference is Apple is making a deal for cheap material and labor in China. They are not forcing people into an agreement nor holding them hostage to do so. The government may be doing all that and what does that say about their government. In exchange, China gets the know how to manufacture such devices and relies heavily upon the American economy. We sink our economic machine and they go down with us. Maybe better than winning through war.
Agreement: We are supporting the corrupt system, making it larger. No doubt. I would put my money where it matters and buy from the not-made-in-China side of the Apple store if there were such a thing.
I have always thought computer tech should be a controlled export product anyways. Never know why you would give your enemy an 8 core Mac! I could give them Windows, but not OS X.
Apple should implement a PIN system for the gift cards. When the card is purchased, the retailer has to activate the card and as part of the activation system Apple would provide a PIN for that card number.
This way Apple could rotate the algorithm for the PIN on a weekly, or daily basis, without invalidating all the cards in the retail pipeline (In the future - wouldn't help now of course).
I imagine that every card code that is sold is processed with a unique generator or retailer ID and that if Apple decided that it was going to invalidate cards, they could choose to invalidate only certain ones, the same way that Microsoft invalidated a number of different product IDs that were created by installing XP with the infamous FCKGW volume license key.
I always wonder (bigger picture wise), how on earth that many people will eventually be integrated into "world society" when they have such low regard for law or morality. I mean we will all be one people some day, but how that's going to work with China has always mystified me.
Excellent analysis for a space cadet. I'd say Guantanamo is a great example of "regard for law or morality". We can argue forever but at the end of the day no country is perfect. If you don't like a country then don't buy anything from it. But seeing as you want your computing needs at such a cheap price so you can afford other luxuries you should quit your complaining.
P.S I'd like to thank the USA for the credit crunch and for dragging us into this recession.
I wonder if anyone has access to what Europe thought of Americans up to the mid 1800 (just to pick a date).
I seem to recall reading about how Amaricans were considered immoral ruffians and hooligans who couldn't be trusted. Sure there was a lot of money to be made here, but our monitary system was a mess. The west was largly lawless. Slavery was rampant and accepted in the south.
Consider, for example, the US' non-recognition of international copyright before 1896. US publishers simply reprinted the likes of Charles Dickens without paying a cent. In part, this was down to the difficulties of establishing and enforcing international law - something the US is still more sceptical than Europe about at diplomatic level. Similarly, many Chinese think that their country has a grace period In which to catch up with other advanced economies, and that copyrights are a restraint on their right to develop. But the real point is that international agreement on these things is slow and difficult to achieve.
The other point is that opinion across the whole of Europe, US and China, now or in the 1800s, is neither monolithic nor measurable so your opening question needs to be answered with a resounding 'No'.
Comments
I think you need to have a CC out of the UK. I think people buy iTunes Gift Cards from other countries on eBay in order to get credits for those stores media. But I'm not the one to ask as I've never tried to buy outside the US.
That's correct. If you want an account tied to a CC, the billing address for that CC has to be local to the store's country. Pre-paid cards work around that restriction by not requiring a verifiable payment address (you do have to register an address in the store's country, but you could look up Harrod's address in London and use that if you want. Maybe use the Queen's address at Buckingham?)
You're right because nothing like that would ever happen in America.
If an American hacker found the algorithm he would sell it to a shady business person who would then generate thousands of codes and create a ponzi scheme of iTunes digital codes and it would all be great until apple flipped the switch and the whole thing came crashing down bringing with it the insurance companies who were insuring bogus iTunes codes.
Ok maybe I'm exaggerating (a little).
Sorry, but I work for a major software developer, and issues with China blow away all others. The difference is that China makes no effort to discourage this kind of theft.
Ironically, in this era, this is the type of hacking that is needed to keep improving security. In a system driven by self-interest (even the enlightened variety), it is naive to expect that relying on a sense of fairplay and trust alone is sufficient.
One also needs the appropriate systems of verification.
Oh stop it with the 'we need burglars to show us how weak our locks are' justification for theft.
Again, this is a non-issue. I have DRMed tracks from both US+Japan stores on my iPod.
Doing it myself for ages. Just sync manually. Works a treat on all BUT an iPhone.
I don't think that has changed.
It hasn't.
I don't think that has changed.
Very smart...
I wonder if anyone has access to what Europe thought of Americans up to the mid 1800 (just to pick a date). I seem to recall reading about how Amaricans were considered immoral ruffians and hooligans who couldn't be trusted.
We still are, for the most part..
Buying gift cards from out of the country is a great way of accessing other country's stores. I buy gift cards from Japan (through jbox) so that I can purchase J-Pop music from their store, even though I live in the US (I have a US account with one email address, and a Japan account with another).
Unfortunately, I suspect that one of the side effects of this scam is that Apple may now actively restrict access to stores to IP addresses local to that store's country. I'd better start downloading, as I've got about ¥7000 in my account right now!
That is my fear as well. I have about 10000 yen I need to burn before Apple lays down the law. What is worse is that I will not be able to purchase any more Jpop if this happens. That would mean going back to yesasia and such. Grrrr. Why can't people just be honest instead of ruining things for the rest of us?
Switch IDs to buy music from various stores. Make sure you buy DRM free tracks or remvoe the DRM from one of many ways after you buy it. Sync to iPod.
FUD. I buy DRMed files from the U.S. store and the Japanese store using two accounts and they both are accepted by my iPods with no problem.
You're right because nothing like that would ever happen in America.
If an American hacker found the algorithm he would sell it to a shady business person who would then generate thousands of codes and create a ponzi scheme of iTunes digital codes and it would all be great until apple flipped the switch and the whole thing came crashing down bringing with it the insurance companies who were insuring bogus iTunes codes.
Ok maybe I'm exaggerating (a little).
Sorry, but I work for a major software developer, and issues with China blow away all others. The difference is that China makes no effort to discourage this kind of theft.
It is really sad the US allows US Companies to do business with China and reap a tax benefit nonetheless. Sure, the labor is cheaper, however, that labor is cheaper because the workers have very little voice. You can't support American virtues (e.g. human rights) while buying Chinese products at the same time. So called Free Trade should only be done with Countries that respect Human life.
Well Apple does and you surely support that by buying Apple products.
I'm also wondering if this group is the same that hacked into my iTunes account and spewed out a real $200 iTunes gift card?
Apple was all over it and did right by me. The banks, etc. where I had to change everything were not only not nice, but plain old jackasses. Several lost my business that very same day.
Yeah, so it is a bit of a weird dynamic with China when you lay out all issues.
Devils advocate: What does that say about the other countries and companies that have no problems striking up deals for cheap materials and labour from China? And to a lesser a extent, those that buy the products knowing where they were produced. Are we not just supporting this corrupt system, making it more powerful while inadvertently justifying its actions?
Double Devils advocate: You have a good argument to be made, but the difference is Apple is making a deal for cheap material and labor in China. They are not forcing people into an agreement nor holding them hostage to do so. The government may be doing all that and what does that say about their government. In exchange, China gets the know how to manufacture such devices and relies heavily upon the American economy. We sink our economic machine and they go down with us. Maybe better than winning through war.
Agreement: We are supporting the corrupt system, making it larger. No doubt. I would put my money where it matters and buy from the not-made-in-China side of the Apple store if there were such a thing.
I have always thought computer tech should be a controlled export product anyways. Never know why you would give your enemy an 8 core Mac! I could give them Windows, but not OS X.
Apple should implement a PIN system for the gift cards. When the card is purchased, the retailer has to activate the card and as part of the activation system Apple would provide a PIN for that card number.
This way Apple could rotate the algorithm for the PIN on a weekly, or daily basis, without invalidating all the cards in the retail pipeline (In the future - wouldn't help now of course).
I imagine that every card code that is sold is processed with a unique generator or retailer ID and that if Apple decided that it was going to invalidate cards, they could choose to invalidate only certain ones, the same way that Microsoft invalidated a number of different product IDs that were created by installing XP with the infamous FCKGW volume license key.
I always wonder (bigger picture wise), how on earth that many people will eventually be integrated into "world society" when they have such low regard for law or morality. I mean we will all be one people some day, but how that's going to work with China has always mystified me.
Excellent analysis for a space cadet. I'd say Guantanamo is a great example of "regard for law or morality". We can argue forever but at the end of the day no country is perfect. If you don't like a country then don't buy anything from it. But seeing as you want your computing needs at such a cheap price so you can afford other luxuries you should quit your complaining.
P.S I'd like to thank the USA for the credit crunch and for dragging us into this recession.
I wonder if anyone has access to what Europe thought of Americans up to the mid 1800 (just to pick a date).
I seem to recall reading about how Amaricans were considered immoral ruffians and hooligans who couldn't be trusted. Sure there was a lot of money to be made here, but our monitary system was a mess. The west was largly lawless. Slavery was rampant and accepted in the south.
Consider, for example, the US' non-recognition of international copyright before 1896. US publishers simply reprinted the likes of Charles Dickens without paying a cent. In part, this was down to the difficulties of establishing and enforcing international law - something the US is still more sceptical than Europe about at diplomatic level. Similarly, many Chinese think that their country has a grace period In which to catch up with other advanced economies, and that copyrights are a restraint on their right to develop. But the real point is that international agreement on these things is slow and difficult to achieve.
The other point is that opinion across the whole of Europe, US and China, now or in the 1800s, is neither monolithic nor measurable so your opening question needs to be answered with a resounding 'No'.
I don't see how this could be a good news for you.