Bono officially apologizes for the free album giveway on iTunes!

[Xenocity 343]

After mounting public pressure, Bono has finally issued a formal public apology.

 

 

"Oops, I'm sorry about that," Bono said in answer to a Facebook fan question. "We had this beautiful idea, we got a carried away with ourselves, artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years mightn't be here. There's a lot of noise out there, I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it."

 

 

Apple and Bono are still refusing calls to compensate users afflected with the free U2 album download.

 

Should Apple and Bono compensate users for all the trouble the free U2 album download caused?

[hym 358]

I have to admit that I have no idea what the uproar is about.  Can someone explain why this actually matters?

[Xenocity 343]

I have to admit that I have no idea what the uproar is about.  Can someone explain why this actually matters?

Apple sent the new U2 album to everyone that had an iTunes account, whether or not you wanted it. 

It appears in your purchased list on iTunes.

If you had automatic download turned on, it downloaded the album to your device.

If it bothered you to the point you wanted the song removed from you iTunes purchased list, you had to go through a site  Apple set up for it.

 

People are/were unhappy that Apple/Bono forced them to accept a free album, they didn't want with out their consent, against their will!

These people have demanded compensation for this hanious act and the trouble it has caused them, while pointing out no other company would such a horrible thing to their customers.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Some people would complain if they were being hung with a no charge gold rope.

[Sabretooth78 808]

Seriously.  I won the lottery and I couldn't stand that I had to buy a new wallet so I returned the money.

 

I only discovered this by accident a few weeks ago by going to Apple.com to see if there was a Yosemite release date.  I often play my music in iTunes several times a week and never did it download itself.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Seriously, it can't be that hard to delete something.  Especially if you didn't order it.  Basically it is no worse than advertising.

[Xenocity 343]

Seriously, it can't be that hard to delete something.  Especially if you didn't order it.  Basically it is no worse than advertising.

It's not.

 

Though Apple supposedly received millions of angry and upset customers calling and emailing them over this.

Even the U.S. media reported on it along with any website that reports stuff about how this was one of the worst things ever done by a company!

Apple and U2 recieved a massive consumer backlash and U.S. and EU regulators promised to look into it, to see if it violated any laws and legal customs.

 

There is a good chance people will sue over it, if not a full regulatory intervention.

[Duke87 1,070]

I can see where people would be annoyed. If an album by some band I didn't care for showed up unannounced in my library, I'd be bothered by it. Yes, it's an easily remedied situation, but it's obnoxious on both Apple and U2's part to shove the new album in everyone's face like that. It's also especially obnoxious that this album was given for free to everyone who has iTunes, but those of us who are not Apple users were basically flipped off and told "no, you have to wait and buy it, you're not in the special club".

 

In other words, this could have been handled better. Make it available to download for free, sure, cool. But sending it to everyone whether they want it or not... yeah, don't do that.

 

The album itself isn't even all that good.

 

 

But yeah, the internet has made this molehill into a mountain the way only the internet knows how. Nerdrage. Oy.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

All this talk about suits just blows my mind.  These people have more money for lawyers than they should have.  The IRS should look at them closely.

[blade2k5 1,523]

Sure are a lot of crybabies in the world today.  Get something for free and then whine about it.  Boo hoo for them.  I think they all need a tissue and a pacifier.

[jmsepe 2,038]

Well, I don't use iTunes anymore except for adding music to the iPod, nevertheless, I don't really mind the new album. I really don't really see the issue here that needs so much hate letters. If it was their favorite artist anyway, I doubt they would complain. Ah yes, it must be for that reason and so? They can just neglect it afterwards, what is really the big issue here? 

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

That was not an apology from Bono! It's a response half-reminiscent of his Fly or MacPhisto Days during the early 90s with Zoo TV. I like this new U2, it reminds me of the U2 of the 90s which was there golden period.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Well I don't like U2's music and the people behind U2, but honestly if they want to give me a free album, I'm not gonna complain about it. 

 

Seriously people, get over yourself. Even if you think U2 sucks, getting a free album is not that bad. Its not going to kill you. 

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Sure are a lot of crybabies in the world today.  Get something for free and then whine about it.  Boo hoo for them.  I think they all need a tissue and a pacifier.

 

Don't forget to heat up their bottles, too.  Fresh diapers all around on the house- WAIT!  NO!  Not without consent!  Can crybabies even sign for consent?  Or are we gonna have to go find their crymommies and crydaddies to do it for them?

[Sabretooth78 808]

It may be free, but it's not without strings attached.  I didn't really try hard enough, but I'm not sure you can make an mp3 copy of the m4a files.  Therefore there seems to be some DRM involved - similar to how iTunes-purchased movies are only playable on authorized devices (machine specific - they can be played in other clients).

 

Maybe I should launch a counter-suit because I'm offended that they're so butthurt.  Given the litigiousness in this country nowadays, I'm sure such a suit would be able to get traction somewhere.  Far stupider things have been sued over and won.

 

This reminds me; I was doing a little research for a BAT project last night and one of the photos was on one of those travel sites - Yelp or TripAdvisor or something like that.  The building is a bank and has tellers in the lobby.  I wasn't really focusing on it but it caught my eye; someone had left a 1-star review because they had to wait something like 30 minutes for before receiving assistance, and that "they can expect a bill."  Seriously, get over yourself.

 

 

That was not an apology from Bono! It's a response half-reminiscent of his Fly or MacPhisto Days during the early 90s with Zoo TV. I like this new U2, it reminds me of the U2 of the 90s which was there golden period.

 

Achtung Baby was great and Zooropa is underappreciated, but Pop is an abomination.  Plain and simple.  My 3¢ anyway.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Stay out of the courts, folks.  Trivial suits like this should be stopped by the master at law before it even got anywhere near a judge.  That's what happens in Canadian courts.  Do U.S. courts have masters at law who decide whether a case has any merit?  Or do they just keep the lawyers in tea and skittles?

 

Non-trivial injury must be shown to have occurred.

[hym 358]

To my knowledge, no such function exists in the US. States may have implemented such a function, but that is on a per state basis.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

To my knowledge, no such function exists in the US. States may have implemented such a function, but that is on a per state basis.

Gee, that's too bad.  Trivial cases of no merit are kept out of the courts by our system.  The master can quash the case or send it back for more work.  A master at law is usually an emeritus member of the judiciary or a professor of law.  This is for civil suits only.  Criminal matters take another route.

[Duke87 1,070]

It may be free, but it's not without strings attached.  I didn't really try hard enough, but I'm not sure you can make an mp3 copy of the m4a files.  Therefore there seems to be some DRM involved - similar to how iTunes-purchased movies are only playable on authorized devices (machine specific - they can be played in other clients).

 

Just because something is in m4a does not necessarily mean it has DRM. The format is DRM-capable but if you look at the properties for the U2 tracks you will see they are not protected.

 

 

 

To my knowledge, no such function exists in the US. States may have implemented such a function, but that is on a per state basis.

Gee, that's too bad.  Trivial cases of no merit are kept out of the courts by our system.  The master can quash the case or send it back for more work.  A master at law is usually an emeritus member of the judiciary or a professor of law.  This is for civil suits only.  Criminal matters take another route.

 

 

Some mechanisms to throw out lawsuits do exist but this is done by the judge, not by a separate person. And it can only be done under special circumstances, such as if the plantiff lacks standing. Generally speaking everyone has the right to bring a lawsuit.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

 

<snip>

 

 

To my knowledge, no such function exists in the US. States may have implemented such a function, but that is on a per state basis.

Gee, that's too bad.  Trivial cases of no merit are kept out of the courts by our system.  The master can quash the case or send it back for more work.  A master at law is usually an emeritus member of the judiciary or a professor of law.  This is for civil suits only.  Criminal matters take another route.

 

 

Some mechanisms to throw out lawsuits do exist but this is done by the judge, not by a separate person. And it can only be done under special circumstances, such as if the plaintiff lacks standing. Generally speaking everyone has the right to bring a lawsuit.

 

Oh, anyone can register a suit.  The time of the actual courts is so crowded that the masters hold down the nonsense.  You can appeal from the ruling of a master, but I've never heard of it being done.

[Meg 368]

Having been at the receiving end of a baseless suit, I can see the appeal of that idea.   By definition of Maryland law, the other party was negligent and a negligent party can not recover damages but he sued me anyway.   (It was a traffic thing.)    It took up 3 years of my life, during which I had pending liens on my property and could not sell my house.   I was not happy.  It took five hours of actual court time.  It took the jury 15 minutes to review their instructions and realize that, by definition of Maryland law, he could not receive damages.  

 

The whole thing was pointless.   I guess the guy was hoping for an out-of-court settlement that would have avoided all of the hassle. My insurance company took the view that they wanted to send a message not to mess with them so they weren't about to settle.  (Turns out that my insurance policy contains a clause that their lawyers would represent me in the event that I was sued but they get to decide how the suit would be handled.)

[Xenocity 343]

All this talk about suits just blows my mind.  These people have more money for lawyers than they should have.  The IRS should look at them closely.

Actually many if not most lawyers in the U.S. take the case for "free" and if you win they take part of the settlement.

If you lose, then you pay out of pocket.

Though only applies when suing.

Everything else has a payment schedule

 

To my knowledge, no such function exists in the US. States may have implemented such a function, but that is on a per state basis.

Actually there is a function and both federal, state and local levels.

All lawsuits and civil suits are reviewed by the courts to see if they hold merit and legal standing.

If your suit doesn't "hold water" then it's rejected!

 

In the EU, you can bring suit under consumer rights section and privacy section of EU law for what Apple did.

 

With that said here some lawsuits over the past few years over consumer goods:

• EA/Bioware were sued by U.S. and Candian consumers over the Mass Effect 3 ending, causing the DLC and public statement.
  • U.S. Federal Trade Commision and the EU Trade Commision also launched investigations into it
• Nintendo lost a lawsuit in U.S. Federal court in 2004 because it didn't put the health warnings regarding video games at system boot up, thus causing a kid to have a seizure from playing Gamecube game (The warning was on the back of the box and in the instruction manuel)
  • Nintendo was forced to put health warnings at system boot up for DS and Wii
  • All systems after that just have the health warning  built in to the OS with an option to turn it off for good.
  • Nintendo also had to pay out millions to the family invovled and cover the kid's medical bills.
• Sony has been formally sued over the frame rate and resolution of Kill Zone on PS4, because it doesn't fully maintain the frame rate and resolution listed on the back of the box
• Nintendo was forced to shut down, it's Swapnote app on 3DS to prevent parents from taking them to court in a very public fashion
  • Pedophiles were using it to swap X rated pics with children
• Ever wonder why 3DS didn't have Pictochat installed? Thank American parents for that one too!