guest
Today’s tempest in an Internet teapot arrived in my mailbox as a blog post by musician and blogger James Pinkstone, who has experienced a problematic run-in with Apple Music.
This Apple service streams tunes to a number of your devices and also syncs your files to the iCloud music library. And therein lies Mr. Pinkstone’s problem: without warning, Apple Music deleted files on his home computer, substituted some tracks for less desirable others with similar names, and changed some files from their original .WAV format to the lower-quality .MP3 format.
Outrageous, say Mr. Pinkstone and many of his commenters. Why should we put up with a paid service that deletes, substitutes and degrades our property?
But, of course, this risk is exactly what they agreed to when they accepted Apple Music’s End-User License Agreement (EULA). Like any good EULA — including the ones I draft for my own clients — Apple Music’s EULA explicitly includes a disclaimer for losing data.
That is, you agree it’s never their fault if they trash your files, intentionally or accidentally. If you don’t like that risk, then you can choose not to pay for and use Apple Music’s service. It’s not really outrageous. It’s not malicious, and it’s not a conspiracy. It’s capitalism.
EULAs vary from vendor to vendor, but you should always assume the worst in them — namely, that you are agreeing to some version of the following: “The company will never, ever be liable for the catastrophic, uninsured loss or global re-publication of your private data, which we may very likely cause.”
Then adjust your data-sharing practices appropriately, including making that choice not to buy the software or service.
But even better, simply never, ever trust an online cloud system as the sole backup for your property.
First, make weekly if not daily backups to an external hard drive, which you keep in an offsite location, using encryption technology if the data is very sensitive. As a distant, belt-and-suspenders second, back up your data to the cloud. And always read those EULAs before clicking to agree and accept.
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Michele Grant is an attorney in Philadelphia. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
