

Bruce Willis to fight Apple over rights to music collection after his death - ableal
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/4517317/Bruce-Willis-to-fight-Apple-over-music-rights-after-his-death.html

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alexholehouse
Please don't ever post anything from The Sun. It's a worthless, sensationalist
pit pandering in majority to festering idiots who live vicariously through a
bizarre mix of celebrities and "real-life-tragedies".

[Edit - This is, perhaps, an extreme view, and The Sun is in no way alone in
using this _modus operandi_. However, as a Brit I feel an impulsive need to
warn those who didn't grow up with The Sun!]

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norswap
I don't care, I'll judge on the article. This one does not seem to fit the
characteristics you describe. I'll trust the community not to upvote drivel
too much (they probably will, but it won't be your usual sun drivel).

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michaelhoffman
Judging the article: it lists no sources and has no quotations from anyone
regarding the headline claim. Doesn't seem that The Sun has presented any
evidence whatsoever to back it up.

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jlgreco
That is hardly "Sun" levels of bad journalism; you see similar from most
mainstream publications these days.

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michaelhoffman
I must disagree with this assessment. I have read dozens of news stories from
"mainstream publications" in the past few days and not one of them had the
singular lack of sourcing found in this article.

Regardless of whether "everyone does it" (which, again, is not true), it's
irrelevant to trying to have higher standards for links from Hacker News.

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slantyyz
Most young people won't get the reference, but before I clicked through to the
OP, I was thinking this was referring to who would own the digital sales
rights to "The Return of Bruno" after his death.

Shamefully, I admit to buying this CD as a teenager, just because it was on
sale for $10 (very cheap at the time for a CD).

~~~
jfb
I had the _exact same_ reaction. I couldn't imagine that it's flying off the
(digital) shelves, so I had to click through and read. Next up, Scott Baio?

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itg
Really wish there were some other sources. All the tech blogs are also linking
back to TheSun which I have a hard time taking seriously.

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auxbuss
The story was also reported yesterday, with more detail, in the Sunday Times
(<http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/>), which sits, ironically, behind a
paywall. (I have the dead tree version here, which I guess I could photograph
and upload.)

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Kelliot
No sources, no comment from any company or organization.

This is the kind of work you'd expect from the sun, trash paper.

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nnethercote
Aren't iTunes tracks all DRM-free now? Maybe Bruce has some old ones with DRM
and hasn't paid to upgrade them to DRM-free.

~~~
ScottWhigham
What does DRM have to do with this though? Presumably the point isn't whether
or not he can move these to another machine with a hardware/software dongle
getting in the way. I take it that the point is that the Apple license
prohibits him from legally giving/bequeathing these songs to anyone of his
choosing.

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femto
Postscript, so that HN has an accurate record: Bruce Willis Isn’t Suing Apple
Over iTunes Music Ownership Rights.

[http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/03/bruce-willis-itunes-
music-l...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/03/bruce-willis-itunes-music-
library/)

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tsotha
Okay, I'm happy he's doing this, and I hope it doesn't mean he's having health
problems.

But I doubt his daughters are interested in his music.

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antidoh
One of the most connecting things my son and I share is music.

Of the few things that I remember about my father, a large part is music.

Even if you don't like the music, it still helps you understand. Sometimes it
just helps you.

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ableal
The reason this is interesting is that finally someone twigged to the
contradiction between the word "buying" and not being able to dispose of the
property acquired.

This applies to iTunes, Amazon and the other app-stores around. No re-sale, no
transmission of any kind beyond first buyer is contemplated. It's in fact a
lifetime lease, with the "landlord" retaining some interesting rights, such as
popping in and removing items. We discussed that here a couple of years ago
when Amazon exercised that right to remove allegedly illegal copies of
Nineteen Eighty Four it had sold.

The current situation may be temporarily good for profits, but the value for
digital items may well depend on their having a secondary market like physical
goods have. The sales of new houses or cars would suffer greatly if they were
not resalable.

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ktizo
A confused and zombified Bruce Willis was found in a Cupertino air
conditioning duct late last night, in possession of a portable hard drive and
a bad hangover.

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prohan
This is stupid.

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lignuist
Why? I think it is great that Bruce Willis brings attention to the topic. My
father gave me his record collection. He was able to do so, because he owned
it. Will current/next generations be able to do the same?

