# What's the intent of copy restriction for iTunes music?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intent-of-copy-restriction-for-itunes-music/521005>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 12, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intent-of-copy-restriction-for-itunes-music/521005 "2009-12-12T18:56:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intent-of-copy-restriction-for-itunes-music/521005/21 "2009-12-16T04:23:26Z")

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> [@Apollyon](#):
>
> Unless her laptop is owned by Mr. Napier? Not arguing **qazwart** , just that’s what I take from your post. (Or co-owned I guess – if the song is bought out of a couple’s joint account and the computers are jointly owned it still all seems legit).

It is probably legit. The actual licensing agreement allows you to share music between up to 5 computers on the same local net. You go into the Store menu and select the Authorize item to authorize that this particular computer can share your iTunes account (and thus your copy protected media items like movies and videos).

Actually, I now realize the Mr. Napier was the one who wrote the original post, so he can probably share his music with his wife’s (jointly owned computer) without too many issues. It’s one of the reasons why up to 5 computers could be shared. They imagined a family might have one or two computers, and like the 640K memory limit in the original MS-DOS, thought 5 computers was a ridiculously high number that no one family would ever own.

We right now have seven different computers in our house. My three sons and I have Mac laptops. My wife uses what use to be our _main computer_, a five year old Mac Mini. I have a Linux system and our TV is a Windows 7 system. Right now, only the TV and I share media files. My wife doesn’t like my taste in music and my kids wouldn’t be caught dead with it.

_Hello lampost how you’re going. I’ve come to watch your flowers growing. Ain’t you got no rhyme for me. Du-du-du-di-du. Feeling Groovy!_

They don’t write songs like that any more.

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