iTunes 7.4.1: (still) allows free ringtones
updated 03:00 pm EDT, Sat September 8, 2007
Apple ships iTunes 7.4.1
Apple on Friday quietly released iTunes 7.4.1, a minor update to the company's jukebox software that is only available via the Web (38MB). Although the company has not specifically described the changes, some report that after the update they were no longer able to use circulating custom ringtone workaround, which allowed users to make any AAC file into a ringtone. Discovered soon after the initial release of iTunes 7.4, users were able to simply rename any AAC track to .M4R and load it into iTunes (by double-clicking, for example): on the next iPhone sync, users will automatically be able to use the ringtones via the iTunes ringtone tab. iTunes 7.4.1 allows previously renamed tracks to exists, but does not allow newly renamed files to show up as ringtones. Update: Users report that they can simply follow the original method and under iTunes 4.1 simple add another step: change the file extension from m4r file back to m4a and the newly renamed file will appear in the iTunes 7.4.1 sync list automatically.
lame
09/09, 01:33am reply
For non-iTMS music, iTunes artifically limits your fair use rights to listen to a song, which is all it is when part of a song is used as a ringtone.
Guest
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Joined: Nov 1999
Fair Use ...
09/09, 01:57am reply
Don't use big words, if you do not know how to us them, okay?
ZinkDifferent
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Joined: Jan 2005
Re: Big words...
09/09, 03:40am reply
Don't use small words, if you do not know how to spell them, okay?
tiborg
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Joined: Jan 2002
Re: fair use
09/09, 09:32am reply
So you think Apple disabling any ability to make or use music you own for ringtones is fair of apple? What about music you make yourself in garageband?
And if you think that making a custom ringtone from a piece of music you legally purchased does exceed the fair use rights of copyright protection, please share with us how that is?
I'm sure Apple will try to argue that you must pay to make ringtones out of some type of 'requirement' from the labels, but that's just c***. Its all part of Apple's normal money grab, plain and simple.
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
RE: fair use
09/09, 03:57pm reply
Actually, the license for iTMS explicitly denies permission for you to use songs purchased from them as ringtones. However, for non-iTMS songs, a license term like this may or may not be present for the music and Apple has no way of knowing [or it could be some sounds you created yourself]. So, for non-iTMS songs, Apple is artificially denying your fair-use [or even no questions asked legal right] to create a ringtone out of them.
Guest
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Joined: Nov 1999
Re: fair use
09/09, 09:49pm reply
Actually, the license for iTMS explicitly denies permission for you to use songs purchased from them as ringtones.
Wow, who knew. And to think we thought Apple was kind of lenient with their fair-use rights. I wonder if they've been planning this ring-tone things for five years?
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
Fair Use
09/10, 01:03am reply
I'm with zinkdifferent. "Fair use" refers to the use of copyrighted material by someone who has no explicit right or permission to do so, in contexts where that's okay. For example, you're allowed to quote a brief passage from a long work in an academic paper.
If you own music, listening to it is not "fair use." It's just use. If you think you have the right to use music you own as a ringtone, and the law disagrees, doing so anyway is not "fair use." It's civil disobedience. Or, y'know, theft. Depending on your point of view.
Feste
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Joined: Jul 2006