tunecore + techdirt + spotify = axis of evil

In that case, I'll see you in hell. 

i'ts upsetting to see a 'download service' being sold while the artists/producers that provide the content/demand for the download service are not being compensated.  There's a lot of things i don't agree with on copyright law, but this type of exploitation should be prosecuted, and get compensation for the artist/label/publisher of the downloaded content..it should not be hard to follow the money here..  this is not your 'harmless' ;) file sharing, where people are trying to share culture/art.. this is a business model, which should not be allowed by the right holders.  but don't be suing the site, it won't get your anywhere, you need to kick the download services in the ass, and make them responsible for the content they are hosting. just like you and i are responsible for the content which we have in our house/car/etc.

If, as freetards loudly proclaim, recorded music no longer has any value then why is there such a continuing swarm of web enterprises seeking to exploit recorded music?

If it had no value then why would their new "business opportunities" have any value? Why would they get funding?

Freetards and Spotify zombies can never answer this conundrum...

"Apple's expansive cloud infrastructure is likely to benefit Reno and the broader Northern Nevada region.  That's where the company looks to be realizing nearly $90 million in tax breaks to construct a massive data center and associated facilities over the next ten years, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal."

Is this some kind of sick joke? Wherein we are now in a financial mess in this country, and where Apple sits on the largest pile of cash than any other company, a pile larger than the amount of cash in the US federal reserve, and here they want 90 MILLION in TAX BREAKS??? What the hell is this crap? Seriously? Not only can they not pay american workers to make products, but now they want 90 million in tax breaks? This is just absolutely disgusting. Screw that! It really sucks that they will get those tax breaks, because you can bet Nevada wants their business, taxes or no taxes. Pathetic.

I think you missed the word realizing in that sentance.  Neveda has some of the lowest taxes in the country for businesses.  It's not that someone is handing them this on a silver platter.  Its that compared to building it in, say California, they will pay a lot less in taxes.  Building this data center in Neveda will most likely be extreamly positive.  They are spending $1 Billion on this project which will create more work in an area that has been hit hard by the econmic down swing.  

Yea, Apple has a huge stock pile of cash, but its not like they deceived the public to get this money.  They are a business that their model is to build and design high end computing/tech devices.  Yea, maybe you could go build a PC with the same components as an Apple computer for less, but it certinly won't have the aesthetics that the apple device will have and it'll be a pain to get OS X up and running on it.  If you don't like it then don't buy it.

Actually, this IS direct tax chops from Nevada.  Then again it is helluva lot cheaper than CA which shows how burdensome CA tax structures are (ask Facebook).  ALso keep in mind this brings a billion plus to Nevada hence the dealmaking.  And it's not a casino.

"The deal includes $89 million tax abatements from the city, county and state over the next decade, effectively reducing the company’s tax burden by 79 percent, according to an analysis of the project by Phoenix-based Applied Economics. About 82 percent of those tax breaks will come from local governments and the rest from the state."

Not true. You are misreading that. It is going to pull money from Nevada for sure. Yeah, its cheaper than CA, and that's great, and yeah they didn't deceive anyone getting that money, and I sure didn't accuse them of that either. Stop being such a fan boy. I own apple products too, and they are still good products. All these companies are less than perfect, but my point is that Apple is so far ahead, and sure could afford to help out the US a little bit. Its pretty disgusting that they want that amount of tax abatement. Furthermore, nobody here said anything about the cost of an apple, nobody was debating their business model, and you sound silly saying all that for no reason. The debate is over the irresponsibility they are showing in asking for that tax abatement. They could ask for half that and it would be like you and I spending $50. Think about it for a second. Why defend this action? You blindly believe in apple so much that you will just start spewing their business model and aesthetics at me? Not buying the product isn't going to do anything anyway. They are going to be a big player whether I like this or not, but they are still making themselves look stupid.