News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

March 18, 2007

itunes_store

Well, howdy there, pardner: John Wayne movie sneaks into iTunes disguised as music video

Posted Mar. 18, ’07, 11:03 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

iTunes GoofApple appears to be having trouble keeping a lid on things recently. Last week, the Apple Store in the UK reputedly slipped up and broadcasted the existence of 8 core Mac Pros that still have not been officially announced. While a new movie mistakenly showing up on the iTunes Store is a little less spectacular, the manner in which that movie appeared may raise an eyebrow or two.

Blogger Michael Whalen went looking for a music video on the iTunes Store, Muse’s Knights of Cydonia. Having bought and downloaded it, he noticed that the file was substantially larger and longer than it should have been: it weighed in at 931MB and was closed to an hour and a half long. Perplexed, he opened it up to find that it was actually a John Wayne film, Hondo, which hadn’t yet been released on the iTunes Store.

Of course, hoaxes like this are a dime a dozen, so I figured I’d confirm it for myself. Sure enough, the glitch was still there. Not only was the list time of the music video (which is still tagged as Knights of Cydonia) 1:23:54, but double-clicking it brought up the title sequence for Hondo. Anyways, seeing as how I had the option to buy a movie for $1.99, I purchased away.

New movies coming to the iTunes Store isn’t a surprise to anybody (Hondo was produced by Paramount, which is one of the studios that already has a deal with Apple). But this seems like an odd, random slip up (not that it’s the first goof iTunes has had). Not to mention that those looking for the music video in question have just spent two bucks on something they didn’t necessarily want. Very strange. Either way, expect to see this problem corrected and Hondo up on iTunes in the near future.

[via Digg]

Update: Even more interestingly, we now have reports from the UK, Australia, and Canada that the same glitch appears in those stores, despite Apple not offering movie downloads in any of those countries. Any more of our international readers want to chime in?


8 Comments

Kim said:

Hondo's Wikipedia entry says that the film is distro'd by Warner Bros, not Paramount. Warner is coming to iTS soon!

March 18, 2007 12:06 PM
Dan Moren Author Profile Page said:

@Kim: Not quite that simple, I'm afraid. :) While Warner Bros. did produce the theatrical release of the movie, Paramount seems to own the rights for home distribution, which appears to include download as well as DVD and VHS.

March 18, 2007 12:39 PM
Simon said:

It's also available in the Australian iTunes Store. Pretty good, considering the Australian iTunes Store doesn't do movies yet.

March 18, 2007 1:35 PM
Jonathan said:

The movie appeared in the Canadian itunes store under the same music video name. Movies aren't even sold on the Canadian site.

March 18, 2007 3:14 PM
scott said:

What I find really interesting about this is that despite not selling any films it seems to be duplicated in the UK store. I'm just downloading the 1:23.54, 931Mb long music video now :)

March 18, 2007 3:29 PM
Richard said:

The Canadian iTunes Store does list the movie with the time of 1:23:54. However, downloading the item results in a music video of 6 min 5 sec. Is this gounds for a complaint?

March 18, 2007 7:27 PM
GCarden said:

I got lucky thanks to another iTunes blunder. The 45 min. concert video "Collision Course" normally costs 10 bucks, but one day I saw for only $2. I bought it immediately, and the very next day it was listed for $10 again.

March 18, 2007 8:51 PM
Strongblade said:

Seems the Canadian store may be 'fixed' now. Looks like I missed it. (It shows just over 6 minutes now

March 20, 2007 6:10 AM

Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: