Is this a moral use of iTunes music?

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Pray4Life

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Ok, now PLEASE don’t laugh at me. This is a perfectly serious question- maybe a little lightweight for the moral theology forum, but I couldn’t think of a better place since it IS about morality.

My husband and I are richly blessed, in that we each own our own iPod. 😃 However, he has asked me whether it is all right for him to listen to music I have purchased using my account from iTunes on HIS iPod.

Here is where I am getting confused, ok? I am allowed to authorize a certain number of computers to play my iTunes music. His computer is, of course, authorized to play my music files. So I’m assuming it must be Ok for him to listen to it on his computer, using his account, or why would authorization even be an option? With me so far?

I am just wondering if this is a licit use (him transferring it to his iPod) or if it is overextending the idea behind authorizing other computers. I mean, he’s my husband, so this whole post feels idiotic. What’s mine is his and vice versa. But I don’t want to do anything immoral, which it seems like just about everything is, if it involves things like sharing music 😛 Please humor me here. Is this some kind of indirect theft, since he was not the purchaser? If so, what’s up with the authorization thing? Do they really expect husbands, wives, and every individual child to purchase separate copies of the exact same song even though they are “allowed” by the software to share their music libraries over their home network? The software is well aware of whose account a copy of iTunes is registered for and that the music being authorized doesn’t belong to that account, that’s why it demands authorization in the first place. Am I missing something here?

Maybe I’m overthinking this :o Thanks for any ideas. I really and honestly have actually READ their convulated behemoth of a TOS and I STILL do not understand how this is supposed to work.
 
Personally I’m interested in what others say. The problem is that before with something physical like a CD, there’d be no problem with sharing it with someone as there’s only one copy of it being played at a time. Several people could enjoy the music but it’s still played from one source.

I’ve heard on another thread (more directly talking about piracy) that it’s ok to share with people within your household. I guess the problem is the fact that it’s a copy that makes it harder to determine (as opposed to something physical which you can’t really duplicate, at least not easily).

I’m not an itunes user so I’m not entirely sure what you mean by authorization. Does the program ask your husband to authorize his copy of the songs (and does it not allow it)?

If you do have authorization on both machines/accounts, it would seem to me that there’s no problem as itunes knows who’s using the music and where it is (and even allowed it).

The authorization bit sounds like DRM (which isn’t supposed to be in most itunes songs now), which was made to limit copies for piracy reasons but actually hampered a lot of people legitimately making copies for backup or installing on several computers they handle (laptop, desktop).

I hope this didn’t confuse you more. :confused:
 
Apple is very sure to make sure you can’t do anything you aren’t supposed to. You have the right to reproduce the software, just not to distribute it- since you and your husband are in a single household, no infringement has been made.
 
you can have up to 5 computers authorized for one song, therefore, Apple allows you to share music with close friends and or family. It is completely fine, i do it all the time with my brothers.👍
 
What Darth said. Apple allows you to put the music on up to five devices - your husband’s is just one of them. Share away!

ONe more thing - I STRONGLY recommend you download Fr. john Riccardo’s Christ is the ANswer talks. They’re not on itunes, but you can get them through a google search on his name.
They’re the best! My ipod is full of them.
 
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