Amazon and Microsoft won't take my money anymore.
So guess what?
A few weeks ago, I went to buy some Microsoft Points for my Xbox Live account. I'd done it a few times before, but now it just comes up over and over that my credit card is invalid. After calling my bank and verifying that it's fine, I had to come to the conclusion that I wasn't allowed at the US Xbox Live store no more.
Oh well, I don't bother with XBLA much anyway.
So then last night I was cursing myself for ever selling the Violent Femmes first album. I decided I'd buy it again from the excellent Amazon MP3 store, which is DRM-free and is encoded at a reasonable bitrate (I don't buy iTunes because of the DRM, but more importantly, a 128kbit music file is worth exactly nothing in my book). I've done this a lot lately. For bands that I really love, I like a CD so I can rip it lossless, but for stuff that is just in my "collection," 256kbit is fine.
Now it comes up with a message that they only serve people in the USA. No music for you!
(sigh)
Batty, that sucks. I've
Batty, that sucks. I've heard of MS having issues with international users, but that's rediculous that they let you do things one way in the past and then stop. As for Amazon, I can always pick up albums for you and then get you a download link. I like the Amazon MP3 store as well for exactly the same reasons you list, but there's no reason why they should cut your off just because you live in another country.