Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Networking
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

China blocks iTunes, users claim

Block linked to all-star Tibet album released earlier this month

August 21, 2008 12:00 PM ET

Active Comments
Anonymous says: Hey Chinese government, here's an effective way to protest against a company's behavior... halt production at factories that build their...
Anonymous says: Well, let's see... What songs would they consider subversive? US National Anthem God Bless America Any song with the word...


Computerworld - Users of Apple Inc.'s iTunes who live in China have been blocked from accessing the online music store, according to reports posted on Apple's Web site.

Although some Chinese customers have speculated that authorities have barred the site because it recently started selling "Songs for Tibet," a compilation featuring musicians such as Sting and Alanis Morissette, an Apple spokesman in the U.S. declined to comment. A company spokeswoman in Beijing, however, told the Reuters news service that the company was aware of the problem but did not provide any additional information.

Although neither provided an explanation for the block, copies of messages from Apple's technical support representatives posted on Apple's site said that the company has not barred Chinese users from reaching iTunes. But the store is being blocked in some parts of the country, giving credence to claims that the Great Firewall of China -- the name given for the government's site -- and content-blocking efforts are keeping users from accessing iTunes.

The first messages about the glitch appeared on the iTunes support forum Monday; the volume picked up on Tuesday, and messages continued to be added today. Users reported receiving an error message when attempting to reach iTunes: "iTunes could not connect to the iTunes store. An unknown error occurred.(-4) Make sure your network connection is active and try again."

Users said they were unable to reach the U.S. iTunes store and other iTunes, including Australia's, from China. Apple does not have a Chinese iTunes. The company opened its first Chinese retail store in Beijing last month.

"I am in Shanghai and the same thing here," said a user identified as "jenjen2008" on Monday. "Downloaded John Stewart on Monday morning and nothing since then. It is an immediate connection error and the rest of the Internet is working fine (as fine as it ever does here)."

Several users posted copies of what they said were messages from Apple support, which they had contacted when they were unable to access iTunes.

"ITunes is not being blocked in China from our end," one Apple tech support representative told the same jenjen 2008, "but access to the iTunes Store IS restricted in some areas in China."

The rep reminded jenjen2008 that Apple doesn't support users trying to access an iTunes store outside of their area. "Please also note though that accessing the U.S. 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," the rep continued.

Other users noted that although connection issues with iTunes are not unknown, they rarely last for long. "There are occasionally these kinds of connections issues, but they usually resolve themselves in 24 hours," argued someone tagged as "foleadu" on a support forum thread. "The fact that this one has continued for a couple of days makes me suspect, like others have said, that China is 'blocking' the iTunes store."



Jump to comments

China

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER
Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.
WHITE PAPER
Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.
WHITE PAPER
Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.

What People Are Saying

White Papers & Webcasts

Southern Company
Download Now  

Aligning IT to Business: The Rising Importance of Application Delivery Networks
Application Delivery Networking (ADN) will play a vital role in helping enterprises incorporate strategic technologies to achieve business initiatives.

Mitigate Risk, Lower Costs and Improve Network Efficiency
Create a stable IP network that not only meets today's challenges, but is flexible enough to also meet future demands.

Share our Strength
Download Now  

Preparing Your Business Services for the Future
Would you trust your network monitoring tools enough to know when something is truly halting a business service?

IPAM: Slashing Network Costs
Slashing Network Costs by Consolidating and Automating Core Network Services

Horror stories: Managing IT Across Multiple Locations
How one extra sharp IT manager eliminates daily agony, hassle and repetition.

Disaster Recovery & Cost Savings Zone
Thousands of customers world-wide have turned to virtualization solutions from Riverbed as a way to reduce costs.