The iTunes Store is a revolution in the way we purchase music, movies and other media, legally. The large catalog, easy browsing, purchasing, and upfront pricing is what makes the iTunes Store tick, making it the largest seller of music, period.
The news for the day is that Chinese hackers have figured out a way to generate iTunes gift codes, and are reportedly selling them at a rock bottom price of $2.60 for a $200 gift card. Previously these gift codes were generated from stolen credit cards, but this time it’s direct generation of new gift codes out of thin air. If this is true, Apple is definitely going to face some huge losses. Having content downloaded, but nothing to show for it is definitely going to piss off some Music companies. Hopefully Apple acts in time (they haven’t said anything yet).
My question, to those who are stupid enough to go buy these illegal gift codes, is why buy them at all? If you’re going to pirate anyway, why spoil a good system that honest customers use? There are dime a dozen torrent sites out there that will get you 10 times more content than the iTunes Store, yet you waste $2.60 to appear to be legitimate.
For now these codes are restricted to a Chinese site (we won’t link to it), and require you to have a chinese bank account for purchase, but it’s only a little time before they make their way into the rest of the world.
[via Ars Technica, img via Gizmodo]
