>But Apple simply doesn't allow for people who reside in multiple countries, and have credit cards in multiple countries. I guess that lifestyle doesn't fit the "Apple way" -- it's thinking too different.
Yes, the irony is very fitting, because as we all know some evil masterminds at Apple HQ are all about making it difficult for non-conformists to have credit cards at multiple countries.
Or you could arrive at the rational conclusion that dealing with different countries, tax systems, economic agreements, copyright laws, regulations, accounts, currency exchanges et cetera AND tracking all that is
_so_difficult_
that despite being a very lucrative outcome for those who manage it, VERY VERY few entities have managed to somewhat overcome those problems a worldwide basis. Namely, Paypal (I did say "somewhat"). And this bloody mess has nothing to do with Apple or any specific company.
Just because we got worldwide connectivity via the internet 20 years ago, people expect boundaries between 200 countries with widely varying economic systems, allies, agreements they participate in, level of technological sophistication, willingness to change their laws, etc etc, will suddenly be unified into one harmonious system so that people can have iTunes accounts in both California and the Congo?
You mean buying an app for personal use in the US and then taking your laptop to Sweden means you have to pay Swedish tax on that app? Or, please explain how any of the reasons you mentioned affect it.
The way I (or everyone) sees it is: it's like a USA shop selling software in USA to someone in USA, and a Swedish shop selling software in Sweden to someone in Sweden. Where is the problem?
Anyway, to add to the discussion, the OP left out option 4: get a VPN in Sweden and/or USA and connect and route all traffic. Works for me.
>You mean buying an app for personal use in the US and then taking your laptop to Sweden means you have to pay Swedish tax on that app?
No, but that is not what the guy did. He bought the app in the US and then went and changed to a brazilian iTunes store account, with a brazilian credit card and brazilian address.
>The way I (or everyone) sees it is: it's like a USA shop selling software in USA to someone in USA, and a Swedish shop selling software in Sweden to someone in Sweden. Where is the problem?
There could be several. For one, the developer of the app might only opted to make it available in some iTunes stores, not all of them, e.g only in the US store. Should a US customer with a brazilian bank account, address and credit card be able to use it? They could add some multi-account management and tracking into iTunes for such cases but it can get messy, plus: "opportunity cost".
Second, several apps cannot be sold in some countries for reasons of copyright, export/import restrictions (e.g crypto code), trademark disputes, etc.
For example, if I had a penny for every time I see a youtube video or iTunes movie, app or song, that is "not available in my country" I would be rich.
It's not like Apple or the media company doesn't want my money. It's that they have agreements to honor, they have to work with regional monopolies and players, they might want to milk other options first that are more lucrative to them (e.g sell DVDs), they want to adhere to the local schedules (e.g we get new episodes of us series several months after the original airing).
So, part of it is problems with global logistics, trade and accounting and part of it is business interests.
Paypal didn't sort this out. It's the same as for the App Store. Your account is bound to one given country and when you move to another country you are supposed to close the account and re-open another one. In addition, you can only link bank accounts to Paypal if they're in the same country as the Paypal account. Also, you can set your address in Paypal to a foreign country.
Nope - it's not. And for me also the Paypal behavior is broken, as I'm resident of multiple countries. Just wanted to point out that the above statement about Paypal was wrong.
For a positive example look at the Google Play Store: The apps that I bought in one country are available in any other country. The only exception are apps that aren't available in a given country. They don't disappear from my phone, but I can't update/reinstall them until I'm in a country where they are available
Yes, the irony is very fitting, because as we all know some evil masterminds at Apple HQ are all about making it difficult for non-conformists to have credit cards at multiple countries.
Or you could arrive at the rational conclusion that dealing with different countries, tax systems, economic agreements, copyright laws, regulations, accounts, currency exchanges et cetera AND tracking all that is
_so_difficult_
that despite being a very lucrative outcome for those who manage it, VERY VERY few entities have managed to somewhat overcome those problems a worldwide basis. Namely, Paypal (I did say "somewhat"). And this bloody mess has nothing to do with Apple or any specific company.
Just because we got worldwide connectivity via the internet 20 years ago, people expect boundaries between 200 countries with widely varying economic systems, allies, agreements they participate in, level of technological sophistication, willingness to change their laws, etc etc, will suddenly be unified into one harmonious system so that people can have iTunes accounts in both California and the Congo?