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149 Comments
- wilwheaton, on 10/12/2007, -4/+49Sigh. How many people actually RTFA before commenting?
I specifically said that I didn't expect -- nor would I accept -- any special treatment. The Apple representative I spoke with (who called me as a result of my e-mail to support, and had my contact info because I've dealt with support before, not because I'm some guy with a blog who used to be on television) said she'd read that concern on my blog, and assured me that this is Apple's customer service policy. She made it clear that they were reloading my cart because I was an Apple customer, not because I'm some guy with a blog who used to be on television. - oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/12/2007, -5/+50will wheaton is .. reading .. my .. comment .. right .. now.
- Gregd, on 10/12/2007, -6/+39They've actually done this for me in the past. However, they made it very clear that I should backup my music (no *****?) and that they would only restore my purchased music ONCE. In fact it was within a few hours of my frantic email that they told me I could download it all again. Pretty good customer service at the time.
- neoform, on 10/12/2007, -18/+47dilbertland:
if you buy a hamburger from mcdonalds, then on the way to your table, you drop it on the floor.. would mcdonald's be doing you a favor by giving you a new one for free?
apple has to spend real dollars on servers and bandwidth. allowing you to redownload something costs them money. - brianb722, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Speak for yourself, I think about half of us here at Digg had roles on Star Trek.
- touch0ph, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21Apple also did this for me but from the sound of their letter, they didn't want me to say anything about them allowing me to re-download all my music.
BACK UP YOUR DATA! It's worth it. - totorototoro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18@declowd,
"Anybody notice that this might be a major issue with "not really" owning your music? All-of-a-sudden, a company can deem that we don't own it anymore, and strip it all away from us. There should have been far more issue given to this."
Not to mention subscription only services, which can basically raise monthly prices at will, and you either pay or lose ALL access to your music. At least iTunes lets you burn to CD. - gaberowe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17I imagine there was a small bit of satisfaction that the tech support guy felt when helping the supposed child genius who built his own phase mass accelerator out of parts from the replicator with help from Data in episode 26 and again in episode 83.
- Langford, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19The physical bits aren't what you paid for, because you don't really own a songs that come from itunes, only the right to access it. It would therefore be logical to assume that the download it's self was provided as a method of meeting their end of the license agreement, and that simply re-downloading them should be within the scope of the license.
- RedBear, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20You people like to bitch a lot.
Say you owned a cassette tape or CD, that got either chewed up or scratched beyond usability. You OWN those...are the record companies going to replace those for you because you own the physical container the music was on? I hardly doubt, it's tough luck for you pal. Apple doing this for people even once is beyond what you expect to be reasonable from any company. The DRM in iTunes doesn't stop people from backing up their music, their own stupidity does that.... - Netmindstorm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Ensign Crusher: The computer seems to have lost all of my holo-music...err core data files.
Captain: Didn't you backup up the core data files like I told you to?
Data: I believe the problem to be with the new computer core module upgrade
Riker: Damn good thing we don't use money anymore, because this would cost somebody their ass
Captain: Mr. Wolf, kindly show Mr Crusher to the airlock
Worf: Gladly - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14Of course they had to restore it, he's Wesley FRICKING Crusher for the Prime Directive's sake.
He's transcended space and time! - spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I've been so satisfied with Valve's Steam distribution system that I've purchased several games through them without ever seeing a box on my shelf. For the sticker price I am awarded the privilege of downloading all my games onto as many computers as I want, as many times as I need. I just install the Steam client on the computer, download as many games as I wish, and play. No extra fees.
I've bought a license to play these games and Steam has made distribution a high-speed, low-hassle affair. Music should be no different. For the price of 40 songs I can download Half Life 2 a million times and play it on a million computers (one at a time). - RaistlinMajere, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Lighten up...obviously many of us are Trek fans, and thus he will forever in our minds be Wesley Crusher. I doubt he has as much of a problem with this as you seem to.
- dilbertland, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15It's not at all like buying a DVD from bestbuy. There isn't any physical media associated with it. You're downloading a file that you have paid for the rights to play. That's what all the DRM crap they attach to it is for. It's a file that's licensed to play on your specific media players. It shouldn't matter if you download it once or 500 times.
I purchase audio books online from a different provider, using a similar DRM scheme, and they allow you to download them as many times as you wish. No need to worry if your harddrive crashes, or even if you just don't want to keep them on your computer. You can download them anytime and as many times as you like. - zorlok, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11That's what BACKUPS are for.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Should Will Wheaton backup his DATA, it will be called LORE... :-)
- vypergts, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Jesus saves...his music.
- gaberowe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Jordi: Captain, this is engineering, We Have to EJECT THE CORE!!!
Ensign Crusher: The con is not responding! I can't enable the automatic core ejection sequence.
Riker: Without that sequence enabled we won't be able to escape the shock-wave of the exploding core.
Picard: It must be done manually. Wesley, here is a space suit, and an iPod Nano, The Next Generation, good luck. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9neoform...once again, in your desperate attempt to suck Steve Jobs' *****, you make an ass of yourself.
Let's further your analogy, shall we? If you buy a McDonald's hamburger and THEY KNOCK IT OUT OF YOUR HAND, then yet, they will give you a new one.
THAT is what happened here. Wil did not simply lose his music. It was deleted due to their BUGGY UPGRADE of iTunes. It was THEIR fault.
Seriously...anyone making this out to be some extraordinarily nice move on Apple's part is really making themselves look stupid. - dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -10/+19Anybody notice that this might be a major issue with "not really" owning your music? All-of-a-sudden, a company can deem that we don't own it anymore, and strip it all away from us. There should have been far more issue given to this.
- Morgantor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Dugg for being able to tell Wesley Crusher to back up his DATA.
- quackslax29, on 10/12/2007, -13/+21does anyone find that they SHOULD be doing this anyway. it shouldn't be conditional, you pay $1 for each song, everyone was already paid, by making you buy it again they'd be making pure profit, like apple needs more money.
- Quix, on 10/12/2007, -8/+15Your $1 is not paying for a lifetime of backup data storage on Apple's servers for crying out loud. Back up your data like any other intelligent user and you'll be fine. My purchased iTunes content gets automatically backed up nightly to an external drive, and periodically burned to DVD. It's not rocket science people.
- Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@ wil
I was just joking. I'm sure that there was no special treatment involved, you just called them up and they did what they probably should do for anyone who encounters the same problem.
But, there are a lot of Star Trek references in the iTunes EULA, seriously. They won't distribute the software to Klingons, and that's just planetist - Netmindstorm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"...not because I'm some guy with a blog who used to be on television."
Note to Wil, check out G4 and spiketv...you still ARE on television and probably will be so for the next 50+ years :) Only you know if that is a blessing or a curse. - zorlok, on 10/12/2007, -13/+20That's like saying because you bought a DVD from BestBuy and lost it, you should be able to go to BestBuy and get another, because hey, you paid for it once. It's not like the track you bought from Apple is free. It costs them money to resend it to you. And if your argument is that it's only like a penny or something per track, then do the math. If everyone could just download replacements whenever they wanted and they have sold 1.5 billion tracks, those pennys add up.
- WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Perhaps Mr Wheaton took a cue from William Shattner, who learned to live with it.
Seems like it hasn't been so bad.
Shattner was way cool on the recent Comedy Central Roast. - Stonelion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6That was the geekiest thing I have heard all month, congrats!
- cheungpat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@neoform
McDonalds staff in Hong Kong actually give people a new one if they drop a Hamburger or drink on the floor accidentally. - flipside3, on 10/12/2007, -8/+14I agree that they should just do this as part of the service. If I move to a new computer, I should have access to all the music I previously purchased.
- chr0mekitten, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@zorlock
You know what, though? A download *isn't* a physical CD. It really is apples and oranges (no pun intended?). I don't think it's unreasonable to be able to re-download something you've already purchased. I subscribe to eMusic, for example, and not only do I get DRM-free mp3s that I can use on my iPod, in WinAmp, on my non-Apple flash drive I use for going to the gym and on CDs for my mp3 CD player, but I can also re-download *anything* that I've downloaded in the past. If I want an album on my laptop that I'd previously downloaded to my desktop, all I need to do is log in to eMusic and download it to my laptop. The point of this is not to be a commercial for eMusic. It's to point out that it's possible to have a successful business model for downloadable media that acknowledges that downloads are frankly different than going out to buy a CD.
And, yes, I do backup all of my music, including my iTunes purchases. - wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Apple will do this one time restore, but it is a one time thing. Better advice is:
1) Avoid DRM music like the plague. (Note that Wheaton says at the end that he is far more likely now to buy physical media now)
2) Backup, backup, backup. Large capacity HDDs are cheap as hell now. External enclosures are like 30 bucks. The software is free (SyncToy for Win, I'm sure there is iSomething for the mac). The "it took x physical medias" excuse doesn't work anymore.
And the good thing about these external HDDs is portability. For the truely paranoid, you can get two, keep one offsite and rotate. For those of us that live in hurricane zone, you can grab the HDD on your way out as you escape. - mhanley, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Nicely blogged, Wil.
- NinjAlt, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Wheatons music lost pattern lock. Luckily Apple found their patterns in the transporter buffer and was able to reintegrate them.
- corteze, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10You should download songs from torrent and you would do it completly legally because you already purchased the licence for all your songs.
- aeproberts, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10Thank god for the hymn project
- fowleryo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9"no *****?"
well, you already lost it once... - spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Apple restored content he paid for that got wiped out by their own buggy software. And he had to initiate the process. That isn't a good deed, that's avoiding a lawsuit. A good deed would have been to reward him for his inconvenience.
- flobee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I bet if The Traveler was around, he could have just helped Will phase shift his songs back from the other side of the warp bubble.
- exobyte, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7In responce to the McDonald's analogy, as DRM reminds us, you don't buy the music, you buy the license. May software companies and some DVD publishers recognize this and replace damaged media for a nominal fee. Apple does not [yet].
- OneAndOnlySnob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Praise Apple, they gave this man something he owned back. They're so kind.
***** DRM, seriously. Stop buying it, you idiots. - Cander, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I think B4 is more appropriate.
- kavaliro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Now, that's not really fair to Wil. If his celebrity status caused it to happen, I'm sure it had much more to do with his very popular (and very endearing) blog than his time on ST:TNG. Otherwise, you'd never have heard about it. Plus, other posters have said Apple has replaced their music, too.
- hodyoaten, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Though I'm glad of the outcome, I think the fact that they made a point to visit your blog indicates some sort of special treatment was going on. This is doublespeak on their part. I'm not so sure that a call center makes time to surf peoples' blogs.
- djkrush, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have studied copyright law of music for my own business, and one thing you should realise is that this is no biggie for Apple's Itunes at all. In most of the major copyright managment organisations (RIAA, JASRAC, CRIAA, etc) there is a portion of their copyright manifesto dedicated to digital music. One of the clauses of this section is that users have the right to download songs they have already purchased up to five times. This is great for the consumer, but unfortunately most digital stores do not utilise this feature (I am assuming for bandwidth costs and for smaller stores the cost and time of coding to make this accurate and not cause a large burden on the two databases involved). In my oppinion, this is not a company doing a great deed that goes way beyond their duties and what they have promised you, because minus the bandwidth costs (which is probably minute for itunes) they have to pay no extra money for artist copyright royalties or the original recording/public distribution rights which go to the label. This is written in to most copyright regulations, so the major cost of doing this is not inflicted on Apple at all. It does show that apple has excellent customer service and has this function worked in, but a truly great deed would be to still be able to download music after you have already downloaded it, so you have to write no letters and if that was the case it would be a better investment for the consumer because if your CD gets lost or broken, there is nothing you can do.
- skipjacker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@Neoform:
"apple has to spend real dollars on servers and bandwidth. allowing you to redownload something costs them money."
How much? we can all agree that bandwidth costs, that's a no brainer. What does it cost them to ship a 5MB file? Give me cents per meg, ballpark it.
Forbes.com says, "YouTube, which is streaming 200 terabytes of data per day, may be paying between a tenth of a cent and half a cent per minute."
AND
"Meanwhile the site's bandwidth costs may be approaching $1 million a month"
(200 TB x 30 days) / ($1M / 30days) = 6GB/$1
@6MB per song, that's 1000 songs for a dollar, 10 songs for a penny. I'd gladly pay for the bandwidth if I could redownload songs at will. - WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Speak for yourself, I think about half of us here at Digg had roles on Star Trek"
Yeah...I was a tribble, way back when... - formfactor, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Its still only a 1 time replacement. Wil will no doubt be pissed again when (and I don't mean IF I do mean when) his hard drive crashes and his music is lost and Apple tells him "Weve already honored your one time replacemnt".
Still better to have hard copys of CDs. Dont get me wrong the replacement option is nice, but why only one time?
Hard drives dont live forever. - ramallama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow. What would happen if Steven Colbert interviewed Wil Wheaton? That digg story would hit the all time front page and dugg record.
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