There are rumors afoot (rumors have more feet, after all, than a centipede) that parts of China may currently be blocked from accessing the iTunes Store.
While China doesn’t have its own native version of iTunes, many foreign residents still use the service to download music from their home countries’ stores (an action which actually technically violates iTunes’s terms of sale).
The evidence is largely anecdotal at the moment, but reports have made their way to Salon and the Sydney Morning Herald, both of whom suggest that the crackdown may have been spurred by the August 5th appearance of an album called Songs for Tibet - The Art of Peace (iTunes link), featuring tracks from artists such as Sting, Alanis Morissette, Rush, and our own favorite John Mayer. Proceeds from the album will go to “support peace initiatives and Tibetan cultural preservation projects important to the Dalai Lama.”
One China-based blogger, JenInShanghai, reported that when she contacted iTunes technical support about the issue, they said:
ITunes is not being blocked in China from our end, but access to the iTunes Store IS restricted in some areas in China. This would also explain why it’s happening to your friends there as well.
There are a number of discussion threads on Apple’s discussion boards reporting similar issues.
Meanwhile, the China Internet Information Center, which is a government-approved news portal, is reporting that Chinese citizens are protesting the album, calling to ban the singers and producers from entering China, and suggesting a boycott of Apple products.
Some have suggested that the album may have been a deliberate move by Apple; personally, I find that unlikely. Apple has just opened its first store in China, and they’re still in negotiations to bring the iPhone to China; they’re not going to jeopardize their business over politics—it’s not their style. In fact, it’s not really their style to play politics at all. But for now, with so little known for certain, it’s a matter of waiting and seeing where things go.
"they're not going to jeopardize their business over politics-it's not their style..." now that statement says allot, the value of the $ over the freedom of a truly peaceful society... we provide corporations with all the same rights as human beings, why shouldn't they have similar responsibilities to society?
I bet this will not slow the production of iPods & iPhones at Foxconn PRC.
Let's see, they get paid $50 per month for assembly-line work of 10 hrs a day.
It would take a years worth of CNY for a PRC iPhone.
Of course, no worries about 3G filled with naughty music.