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Another reason for Apple to launch a couple of things in Canada: Apple TV movie rentals, iTunes TV shows, 3G iPhone...

they do have itunes tv shows in canada

May 21, 08 - 03:18 pm Comment from: macnut222

I give it 90 days. At that time, MDN will have the headline "More blood on iTunes' play button."

May 21, 08 - 03:22 pm Comment from: ElderNorm

Aggggghhh. Excuse me but did I not hear that playsforsure rights will die in August. That Microsoft will not support who can play what after that date????

So if you buy a movie, and change computers after Aug 1 2008, you lose the movie. Even if you burn it to disk, the drm would be required to allow the movie to play.

Am I close?? I am not sure I would even give it 90 days. :-(

en

May 21, 08 - 03:22 pm Comment from: JAYGEE

I'd give it 6-12 months.

May 21, 08 - 03:24 pm Comment from: Gandalf

The bell tolls

May 21, 08 - 03:27 pm Comment from: makemineamac

Oh my God. The stupidity of these companies is nothing short of astounding. I mean really. Incompatible technology, soon to be even more incompatible come the end of July.

I know we're a very small market for Apple, but I had really hoped they would be launching the move service for Apple TV before someone like these asshats did something similar and meaningless.

Asshats!

May 21, 08 - 03:30 pm Comment from: cptnkirk

As far as being in touch with their potential customers, Bell Canada is about as much out of it as it is possible to get. Surprisingly, Rogers is only the second worst. Bell Canada actually makes a real effort to support Mac owners using their internet access. Rogers makes no effort in that area at all and is totally in bed with M$. Stragne bedfellows, the whole bunch of them!

hm!hm! ...and when do they close?

May 21, 08 - 03:35 pm Comment from: Winston

Oh, Canada. Tsk, tsk.

May 21, 08 - 03:37 pm Comment from: mike k.

wow ... timing really is everything.

i can't imagine any worse association right now than labelling your product as PlaysForSure.

This is actually "download-to-own-until-we-decide-to-stop-running-our-drm-servers-because-nobody-is-buying-anything". If Microsoft, which makes a jillion times what Bell makes, in a market 10 times the size of Canada, decided to turn off it's PlaysForSure servers, I don't see this as being very successful for Bell or for their customers.

@hello hello

They may *technically* have iTunes TV shows in Canada but not really. They have currently no movies for rent, no movies for sale, and for TV shows they have two or three of the worst Canadian TV shows and about 25 to 30 American TV shows.

Sadly the American TV shows are just the very bottom of that particular barrel also.

All that teenage junk from MTV, blech! :-(

What do expect Bell to do, Apple wouldn't make a version of the iphone to work on Bell's CDMA network, but thats ok for you fanboys. If you crap on Bell, crap on Apple first!

Good luck...

May 21, 08 - 04:00 pm Comment from: January 24, 1984

Are they publicly traded?

Short target.

Its bell that is in bed with Microsoft, as they have hooked up their sympatico mail with hotmail, while Rogers uses Yahoo (altho with all the merger talks... who knows.)

Rogers has detailed information on how to configure a mac with their internet (and since Rogers does not use PPPoE, its much easier), and Apple Mail client with their servers.

Having said that, Roger's sux, altho not as hard as Bell.

May 21, 08 - 04:07 pm Comment from: CanuckMac

Ah, gosh, and who handles all of Bell's Sympatico email - Monkey Boy's glorious Hotmail! Who's really running the shop?

From what I am reading it is only MSNs Plays For Sure servers that are being shut down so the Bell ones might last a year or so. In any case this is a bad move, but show that there is nothing legally (CRTC) holding Apple back from selling Movies on iTunes Canada, so it is the Studio's that are the holdup.

http://www.techvideonews.com/view_news_link.php?nlid=93163&p=1

May 21, 08 - 04:40 pm Comment from: HMCIV

I hear they're also doing movie rentals in BetaMax.
Way to pick a winning format fellas!

May 21, 08 - 04:40 pm Comment from: joey

Oh - oh, the rapture! I can feel it - you can feel it too if you want

"Only those devices that support the Microsoft PlaysForSure format can be used for portable players. The system cannot be transferred to popular devices such as the Apple iPod."

I love it. They actually admit in the article that PlaysForSure devices are not popular. What great unintentional PR for the iPod.

Yes, they are publicly traded. They have been dropping like a stone for the last few weeks (for other reasons.)

Definitely a short target.

What's truly pathetic is that The Globe and Mail (usually an excellent newspaper) is part of the same company (Bell Globemedia)...so this "article" is pure propaganda/advertising. If you want a real guffaw, this is from Bell's help screen:

Can I use Bell Video Store on my Mac?
First off, several of us have Macs at home and this is just as frustrating for us.
We’re hoping that one day Microsoft, Apple, the content owners and video sites like ours will have a big group hug and we can all share content. Until that day comes, all video content is delivered to you wrapped with Digital Rights Management (DRM).
DRM is what sets the rules on how and where we can watch videos. Bell Video Store is required by the content owners to put DRM on every video.

We are using a Windows Media DRM, which Mac does not support. Mac works with their own DRM, called Fairplay, which as you may have read only works with iTunes.
So we are left with the option of not being able to deliver our service to Mac users.

Please share any ideas on how we can get MAC and PC to play nice together. Until then, feel free to browse our site with your Mac, but please remember you’ll be unable to play any of the content we currently have on the site at this time.

A copy of the letter I sent to Richard Currie:

To whom it may concern:

Regarding your Plays-For-Sure downloads, what are you thinking in presenting movies in a format that is unpopular, being abandoned by the company that created it, restrictive, and plays only on the vast minority of portable video devices? I'm amazed that so-called "businessmen" made this decision. The world has changed and the content providers no longer have the power they used to: piracy will always be an option, especially when restrictive DRM is used to "protect" music or movies. The power now resides with the public, and the most logical plan would be to appeal to the people who are willing to pay for content: present content of good quality at a reasonable price. The only company who has presented this alternative is Apple. Much as the movie and music studios have objected, Apple presents the only logical, viable model to selling music online (movie downloads are still in their infancy, but my guess is that the same logic applies to movie downloads).

Microsoft has a long history of strong-arming and abandoning its "partners," so don't expect them to do you any favors when this plan fails within the next year or two. Using "Plays for Sure," an oxymoron which Microsoft has publicly stated it is abandoning due to its extreme unpopularity, is either a very poor business decision, or some sort of business sarcasm.

I live in America, so I won't be subjected to any of your nonsense, but I had to write to let you know how foolish your plan is.

Sincerely,

Great News. This means that the studios are finally ready to offer their content to Canadians. It won't be too much longer until iTunes Canada has the same content.
Bell is just another crappy company providing crappy service. I wonder what Bell well charge solicitors for your personal information and viewing habits. Soon the evening phone calls will start coming - "we noticed you watched National Lampoon's Vacation last night - could we interest you in one of our Carnival boat cruises?" I will take a pass on this just like I do with their other services. My home is proudly Bell free.

Let the Globe and Mail (Toronto's National Newspaper - which covers local toronto car accidents) help spread the word for their sister company.

As a side note - Sprint should buy Bell Canada - then they would have more stupid managers on duty.

Bell likes monopolies or very dominant oligopolies. They are used to it.

Hopefully Apple announces support/availability on June 9th for Apple TV Rentals here.

The bottom line - CRTC in Canada is wasted breath. Our telcos suck. Our cable companies suck. Company first. Customer last.Sounds like a motto from Microsoft. as MDN likes to say about Billy and Ballmer..
Your frustration. Our Fault.

Absolutely no surprise that Bell doesn't like the flexibility offered by Apple and the ability to bypass the carrier to put products on the phone. You can see all the cable companies and satellite providers working hard to make sure Apple doesn't provide movies better than they do.

Watch for Bell movie downloads to not be included in your monthly download limits or download throttling. Bell just announced throttling on their internet providers. You can bet the Apple website will be throttled by Bell.

I recommend Jail sentences for the executive. Better yet, public hanging. Probably wouldn't be covered by Bell Globe Media.

Cynical...no...just the reality of the lack of government oversite in the Canadian marketplace.

TO Bell Corp,

Bell,
I was astounded at how hard your corporation worked to leave Apple products out of the devices available in Bell movie offerings.

Microsoft products are unreliable, consistently at odds with consumer preferences, and more importantly, full of viruses.

Your choice to stay away from the most popular portable players and the most accessible home devices astounds me.

It does confirm that you must have been paid by Microsoft to use their broken technology as a real management team would never accept such an inferior DRM as Microsoft never plays for sure technology.


PS. For entertainment rather than frustration, you may wish to play this recent commercial...

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

I recommend "Sad Song Long".

This note was written on a MAC. I wish you one full day of work without using control -alt-delete.

May 21, 08 - 06:20 pm Comment from: Jubei

I wonder if Thurrott or Enderlenut will approve of this message.

"Only those devices that support the Microsoft PlaysForSure format can be used for portable players."

May 21, 08 - 06:29 pm Comment from: fuzzybear

lol Bell you f*ktards. Frank and Gordon you dumb beavers!! I'm am so happy that are continuing down the path of MS sheep followers and their are continue to dig your own grave. Ever the sweeter as I change land line providers this morning off of ma Bell! see you suckerzzzzz!! Finally totally off Bell!!

You should see the Windows shit they use in the newsroom.

Canada is a backward place, full of wankers in suits who think they are still living in the 1950's.
The CRTC is a criminal organistaion, the RCMP is in cahoots with organised crime (FACT), the judiciary can be bought, etc. etc

Canada is owned by the USA, but pretends it isnt.
Fuck Bell, fuck the canadian mainstream.

There are still some of us in Canada who arent assholes, but its a small number.....

May 22, 08 - 06:50 am Comment from: Scott in Japan

One Word: TITANIC

what else can they do? are there any drm-systems on the market for video besides fairplay and plays-for-sure? does apple license fairplay? i don't think so. so what could they do? does anybody know which drm- system is used by vudu?

I sent the following email to the provided link.

"It is puzzling to me that, in the face of the reality of digital media that Bell would offer a service to customers that excludes the only portable media player that matters: Apple’s iPod. The iPod is over 75% of the portable media player market, which means that a huge majority of those owners are using their iPods on a Microsoft Windows PC. If you choose to pursue a business plan that prevents users from transferring their content to their portable media player of choice, it is a simple matter of economics that your store will be a dismal failure. As well, it is painfully obvious from the latest Play For Sure fiascos regarding expiring media licensing servers that partnership with Microsoft technologies is beneficial neither to consumers nor business partners, given that Microsoft will abandon said partners when it suits their aims.

Digital Rights Management in the vein of Microsoft’s Play For Sure is too restrictive to be of value, and DRM of most stripes is merely an irritant to consumers.

Thank you."

Magic Word = 'think', as in "I think very soon Bell will be turning out the lights on a painful and expensive experiment."

Exactly where does Bell Canada go to get universal DRM software that works on Mac OSX, Linux and the various Windows Oses?

If Apple really wanted to sell movies to Canadian iTunes users they could set up a Bell store within a store in iTunes Store Canada in a matter of days.

After all, it's all about the hardware sales, isn't it?

May 22, 08 - 10:46 am Comment from: G4Dualie

This is good news! I like to read stories like this, don't you?

A lot of Windows sufferers are going to get royally hosed when Bell announces all customers must upgrade to Vista if they are to regain access to their media or to resume regular programming.

It's stories like this that chip away at the pedestal Microsoft has built for themselves.

Apple should be ready with a marketing campaign to air in that market.

Well, what can you do? Would Apple allow Bell to use their iTunes in Canada? I doubt it. What is a company that wants to move into a new technology delivery system of movies and TV shows going to do to accomplish this, outside of making their own technology up from scratch.

I suppose that they could have bought in and partnered up with Apple, or NetFlix, or who ever. But, there would always be someone angry about the choice. Just as we don't want a company to blindly surrender to a Microsoft, what is the best way for a start up project to do?

May 22, 08 - 12:57 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

"Exactly where does Bell Canada go to get universal DRM software..."

The same place everyone else goes for a universal platform-agnostic DRM solution: a Standards body, like ISO or whatever but they have nothing on the shelf yet.

The only solution is a computer platform choice!

Here is the short list of middlemen (suckers) who took the bait in the PlaysForSure licensing (Bell should find out why they're no longer in business) agreement:

AOL MusicNow (closed)
Yahoo Music (closed)
MTV URGE (closed)
MSN Music (closed)
Musicmatch Jukebox (closed)
Wal-Mart Music Downloads (switched to MP3)

Here is the list of hardware vendors who agreed to build portable devices under Microsoft's PlaysForSure licensing agreement, which by the way, prohibited them from supporting (since amended) any non-Microsoft audio encoding formats:

Archos
Cingular
Cowon
Creative Labs
Denon
Digitrex
D-Link
Ericsson
Insignia
iriver
Kyocera
Motorola
Nokia
Palm
Pioneer
Philips
Roku
RCA
Samsung
SanDisk
Sonos
Sony
Toshiba

Come August 31, 2008, if you own any PlaysForSure media you had better decide what you're ultimately going to do with it because MSN Entertainment and Video Services division is going to pull the plug on their MSN Music license servers.

On September first, your music will be locked in to whatever computer you chose and as long as you keep the computer and never upgrade the OS you will always have your music. Or course you can always burn and rip it back into a computer minus the DRM. It's a second-gen copy and in some cases an enormous amount of work but it sure beats the alternative. Paying for the music again.

Bell Mentalité !

BTW : thanks for that very interesting comment G4Dualie.

Vivement le 9 juin. When july, 9 will come, I'll migrate from Bell to Rogers with a brand new iPhone and bye-bye bad 3rd party sync and media monopole. I know, Rogers sucks but Bell are vultures.

May 23, 08 - 03:05 pm Comment from: spaceMan

Bell folks were recently handing out free popcorn (unpopped) and a card for video rentals at subway stations in Toronto... I had presumed it was to pickup a dvd in their service centres....

oh well, the popcorn should be ok

May 24, 08 - 10:12 pm Comment from: 45north

every month or so Bell sends me a letter announcing Bell internet! so far I have not considered the offer.