I said it before, and I will say it again: I admire China for proving that, from an economic point of view, communism is not a complete failure, if combined with a little drops of Western concepts. Unfortunately, they still have a lot to do to straighten up their image as a country, and despite succeeding to organize the most impressive Olympic games so far, they also managed to show us once again that Chinese censorship is a few centuries behind the rest of the world. This time, they really did it - could you imagine that access to the iTunes Store has been denied because an album called "Songs for Tibet???"
The story starts with the fact that a bunch of artists, united under The Art of Peace Foundation(http://www.artofpeacefoundation.org/index.php) banner recorded 20 tracks, released on the 5th of August on the iTunes Store, and the physical CD launched on Tuesday, this week. The artists who joined in include Sting, Suzanne Vega, Moby and Alanis Morissette.
"Songs for Tibet" is available via Apple's U.S. iTunes Store for $11.99 here, and all it happened was the fact that Olympic athletes downloaded and "possibly" listened to it as a "subtle act of protest against China's rule over the province," as Stephen Hutcheon reports for The Sydney Morning Herald.
I know it may sound like I am not completely sane to say this, but you should be glad about the entire Chinese censorship thing. Why? I am not saying censorship is good, but here's why is censorship good in China - if this country would completely open itself to the world, in less than a decade, virtually everything would be outsourced to them, including software production, so think about a cheaper India! Don't get me wrong, I am completely against what's happening inside China and Tibet regarding human rights, but think about the impact of a free China on the economy of the entire planet! Anyway, I guess we'll see sooner than expected if now I am only paranoid, or not, but let's finish the story about iTunes Store, and leave the answers to the "Why is censorship good?" question for another time, shall we?
A blogger going by the name "JeninShanghai" posted a reply from Apple's customer support after reporting her problems with the US iTunes Store account in China. Here it is:"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."
The response from Apple continues:"I would advise that you contact your ISP [internet service provider] about this matter. Please also note though that accessing the US iTunes Store outside of the geographic region of the United States is not supported, and that attempting to access it while in China is at your own risk." Risk? Hey, what risk? Oh, well, here it goes...
According to a so-called report published by a Chinese news portal, "angry netizens [internet users] are rallying together to denounce Apple in offering Songs for Tibet for purchase. They have also expressed a wish to ban the album's singers and producers, most notably Sting, John Mayer and Dave Matthews, from entering China." Even more, they are calling for a boycott of Apple products!
Heh...if I think well, Apple didn't make a really smart move to enter China. Really, if it all starts with this, what's the next step? Compulsory red iMacs with the hammer and sickle on them, or no iMac sales allowed???
