work around iTunes national restrictions?

[Mr L]

I'm a big fan of US shows and would like to download these through iTunes.
Anyway when I'm asked to put down my credit card info they don't let me proceed without a valid US adress.
So I'm willing to pay for the shows, but they don't let me. Simply because I'm a EU resident. So is there another way around this. I know I can download some of the shows illegaly via torrents for free, but I don't like the hazzle. Why restricting Jay Leno? It doesn't get to EU anyway. Is there maybe another paysite for US shows I can subscribe to?
I'm willing to pay and they don't let me. HELP !

 

[swingerofbirch]

Well, it might not be much consolation, but some of the networks stream their shows from their websites. For example, I'm not home when 30 Rock on NBC comes on, and don't feel like buying it from iTunes so I watch it on their website--it's a Flash video, and you just have to watch a few commercials. Last summer ABC family did the same thing with Kyle XY, and I believe they do it with their bigger shows like Desperate Housewives. I'm sure the NBC site would have clips of Jay Leno, and then there's always youtube.

 

[hexoffender]

While it is strictly against forum policy to talk about how to circumvent iTunes regional restrictions, I think it would be fine for me to explain that it wouldn't be possible for you to circumvent it anyway:

The system is based on your credit card: when you enter your credit card number, the credit card providers' server is queried and your location is then revealed. Ergo, if you hail from the good ole US of A, then it will only allow you to purchase music from that region.

Sorry

 

[davidjearly]

While it is strictly against forum policy to talk about how to circumvent iTunes regional restrictions, I think it would be fine for me to explain that it wouldn't be possible for you to circumvent it anyway:

The system is based on your credit card: when you enter your credit card number, the credit card providers' server is queried and your location is then revealed. Ergo, if you hail from the good ole US of A, then it will only allow you to purchase music from that region.

Sorry

Actually, it is possible but it is also illegal so I will say no more.

 

[tfstone]

why it is illegal ...

to discuss is is beyond my understanding. it`s not like that you are stealing you ARE paying. anyway. google is your friend. just look and you might find.....

 

[shunpike]

gift cards?

 

[tuzed]

gift cards?

You still need a credit card to make purchases.

 

[davwin]

You can setup a US iTunes account using a giftcard and make purchases from the US store using the giftcard "credit" without having to put a credit card on your account. You can't of course exceed the available credit either though. This is widely documented so just do a search if you need further help with that. You can also use PayPal for registration/payment through iTunes and can easily setup a PayPal account for US purchases. It is however, much more difficult to get a foreign address verified with PayPal if you require that (as you can imagine). There are also several EU credit cards and tons of pre-pay credit cards that allow you to register them with foreign addresses - including US addresses for use abroad. The iTunes store does not perform any IP checks or other measures, it just requires you to have a valid account for the regional store you are shopping from.

There is nothing illegal about opening different iTunes accounts for different regions and this does not bypass any regional purchase restrictions. You would simply maintain a separate account for each region that you log in to. If it helps, all content from the various iTunes regional stores would still be stored in a unified iTunes library so it isn't as bad as it sounds.

Hope that helps

 

[Casemon]

There are also several EU credit cards and tons of pre-pay credit cards that allow you to register them with foreign addresses - including US addresses for use abroad.

Hi davwin, do you mind sharing some keywords or sites to find such info? Searching, am finding tons of unrelated info.

 

[davwin]

In the UK - the Payzone Mastercard allows you to register it via their website to a US or UK address. The only restriction is that you cannot change the country designation after registration.

 

[RumMunkey]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/528.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/528.16)

Go to eBay.
Search "US iTunes Gift Cards".
Buy.
Enjoy.


(Just make sure you're not buying some of these fraudulent cards that are very popular right now).