One of the goals I have in writing for The Apple Blog is to put out ideas that may not be in the mainstream for Mac users. I hope I can introduce new software products that many aren't familiar with, or to comment on trends, like seeing Apple go to a nearly all-white lineup, or suggest that some products aren't growing as well as others, as I did with questioning iWork's success.Today, I said that I feel Apple should make a change with iTunes (see: Apple Should Drop Notion of “Purchased Music”), in that they shouldn't highlight songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store as "Purchased". The inference I gain from iTunes' designation is that everything not purchased from iTunes would be not "Purchased", i.e. "Stolen". The best example of this would be a dual-CD set I just bought in New York. While I paid $18.99 for it, iTunes doesn't mark it as "Purchased", but just sifts the items in my library, as if they were downloaded for free (i.e. illegal) or ripped from a friend's copy.
So far, despite the article's stirring up conversation, many of the comments are quite negative. It seems everybody thought my suggestion fairly daft. One says, "Please take off your Che Guevara t-shirt and put down your anti-drm protest sign long enough to pay attention." Another says, "I think you are a way overly sensitive on this one." Then they pile on. One says, "Make peace with your iTunes and you will find peace in yourself," while one adds, "No ones saying you stole anything…martyr-complex much?" and another... "You’re corporate paranoia has gone just a tad into the red zone."
Typos aside, everybody thinks I'm reading too much into it, that Apple is not saying I stole the other 2,000+ tracks from iTunes, only that they weren't purchased from the iTunes Music Store. And of course, they're probably right. I was instead suggesting that the wording could be changed.