Someone needs to pick up Steve Jobs and use him to whack some sense into the Apple legal knobs who keep sending out frivolous cease & desist letters to anyone they claim is violating their trademarks.

Most recently? A bar in Des Moines has been running “iPod Mondays” for 2 years now, and has been diligent in keeping Apple informed of their events. The local Apple dealer loves it because it’s free promotion and it’s driving up their sales. What do the dumb legal schmucks at Apple do? Send a cease & desist letter.

Read about it here:

http://dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070209/NEWS/702090400/1001

Wake up, chumps.

We love and use and promote your products because they are cool, creative and express our intrinsic humanity. Get your legal knobs on the same bandwagon or we’ll start seeing you for the heartless corporate sharks you probably really are.

Lame!

I can’t help but think you must have something to feel guilty about.

Or the guy who saw an error message saying “invalid parameter”, and called technical support complaining that the software called him “an invalid”.

I think you’re being more than a little dramatic about the RIAA paying you a visit. I report on MPAA and RIAA lawsuits almost daily, and there has never been an instance of someone getting arrested for merely having ripped tracks (or even download ones) on their computer. The only way you can get in trouble is if your IP is found to be uploading copyrighted tracks to a peer-to-peer network like Gnutella (LimeWire/Acquisition).

1. Go to your main library.
2. Select all. (Command - a)
3. Drag the selected files into the “Purchased” play list.
4. Done

This has the added benefit that, when you sync your recent generation iPod with another computer, everything in your “Purchases” playlist is copied to the new computer.

To me it sounds like you’re feeling guilty about something….

- Rename your “Purchased” playlist.

… or …

- Add any song you so desperately need to be labeled as “purchased” to the “Purchased” playlist.

It’s really that simple. But I guess blogging about a non-existent problem is even simpler.

“My ITMS”
You have to be kidding. Windows XP labels everything “my this” and “my that”. Vista doesn’t. Do you think they left it out accidentally?

Calling it “From Apple” makes it sound like Apple is sending you letters. The only letter you’re likely to get from Apple is a C&D. Cease and desist being a moron.

Please stop posting your paranoid ramblings on the internets and leave the thinking to us adults.

We could go the official “Purchased from Apple” vs. “Purchased at Retail”, “Gifts from Grandma”, “Downloaded Illegally”, etc. route, and get plenty of playlists.

The reactions here (and elsewhere, i.e. Macalope) were not exactly what I had anticipated. If I were to refocus this, it’d be on the fact that even in Steve’s comments, he mentions the 97% of songs on iPods that are not from the iTunes store. It’s widely assumed in many corners that those are more from P2P than from retail stores. I’d like that assumption to change, and was trying to suggest Apple could help with some word-smithing. Clearly I could have too.

Anyway, you could always create another playlist called “Also Purchased” and put all of your other music in it. That way, when the Feds confiscate your computer, they’ll never suspect you of illegal downloading. That should help you rest easier.

1)you bought it from the most overpriced store imaginable

2)you are actually getting a whole product when you buy a cd. When you buy something from an itunes store it is a compressed version of what you get on a cd. Therefore if that format ever goes out of use (or say you buy something other then an ipod) and you want to convert it to another format it is an even more compressed version of of what you would have got and there would be a noticeable drop in quality.

the point is that if you know where to buy cds (if you live in new england try newberry comics, if not try amazon or other online stores) you will be paying about the same price for more product and even if it costs a couple dollars more it is worht it.

Honestly, one of the things I like about iTunes is that it doesn’t care where you got the music from. It doesn’t run any checks based on ID3 tag formatting or only allow you to play tracks that you ripped from a physical CD using iTunes, proving that you didn’t download them from elsewhere. Apple simply says, “Don’t steal music,” and then leaves the rest to you and your conscience. Saying “I’m tired of being assumed a thief unless I shop exclusively from iTunes” sounds like there’s a beating heart under the floorboards that’s bothering only you.

How old are you? You sound like a kid.

If you really want them to know, you could always just tell them.

If it bothers you so much delete the playlist.

“That may be true, but not here.” Oh, it’s definitely true here.

As noted in the article, I think it’s great that Apple has the capability to track my purchase history. I would expect them to. My feeling is that it could be presented in a better way. Even if the songs themselves were labeled “My ITMS” or “From Apple”, that’s more accurate than “Purchased” - even if it is under the iTMS store itself. With the Marketing geniuses at Apple, I am sure they can come up with a dozen better options in a half-hour or so.

I totally agree with Izzy.

wow

If you want to make your own smart playlist called “Real Purchases” then do it. Its a one-minute exercise.

On third thought, this must be some kind of joke, right? I mean no sentient being really thinks Apple is trying to send a message to its users that if it wasn’t purchased via the iTunes Store then it must have been acquired by illegitimate means.

But one never knows . . .

- For a user that has purchased all of the music on their system, the “purchased” play list because pointless, since it contains all of the music on your computer and is then removed as a result of it’s uselessness.
- People that want to backup only the songs in their collection that they’ve purchased online start to complain about how annoying it is to have to create their own dynamic playlist that only contains songs that use Apple’s DRM, meaning they were purchased online. Who doesn’t want to backup the files they’ve spent money on and cannot obtain again? (except for the one time re-send policy Apple has).
- Apple puts in a special playlist under the Store category that lists all of the items you’ve purchased, to make it easy to back them up. What would you call it?
- Some complaines that anything not on their “purchased” playlist may be seen as “stolen” by others.

*sigh*

Along with what has been said by in previous comments, the “Purchased” tag has one more very important use - it allows you to easily find and backup songs that you have no other copy of. I backup my Purchased music once a week so I have a backup. It’s a preset backup plan in Apple’s own Backup app. You could say that Apple is trusting you will have other legal copies of every other tune and only need your iTunes purchases backed up.

Thanks for your faith in my Apple.

So, in short, get off it.

But I’m tired of being assumed a thief unless I shop exclusively from iTunes.

Louis, there’s absolutely nothing to be tired of. If you have the feeling, that anybody accuses you of anything, just don’t care about it. It’s really that dead simple.

I too buy digital music and i download digital music for free. I download both legal, but NOT from iTunes. Trust me, i couldn’t care less of what anybody might accuse me of…

The songs which you purchased from the store might not hold any higher intrinsic value to you, but the information about where they came from damn well should. That playlist is there because there is no other easy way to know where that music came from. If you’re in the fraction of people who’s digital music library is 100% legit, then without it you have no easy way of tracking your digitally-purchased music: it doesn’t have a jewlcase or jacket like physical media. So in essence, it’s protecting those with legal libraries.

Or if you’re just obsessive compulsive about organizing your music. Or if you want to send someone a song, you have an easy way to check if it’s DRMed or not. Or if you really hate the “purchased” list that much, just delete the songs from it. It works just like any other playlist, you can delete items from it, but they stay in your library. That way you’ll REALLY be sticking it to the man!

Oh, by the way, I’m highly impressed that you have 1000 songs purchased from the iTunes store, and that you bought a ~$20 dual CD. You must be rofling in the moneycopter right now.