Apple’s iCloud criticized for ‘encouraging’ piracy

The newly launched Apple iCloud was called “music pirate amnesty”, for its new tool iTunes Match is expected to legitimize pirated music, said media reports.

Apple Inc unveiled the iCloud, a music-streaming service, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, on Monday.

The company hopes that iCloud will power its next stage of growth and popularize Web-based consumer services, though music industry experts widely criticized Apple’s latest service as they believe iTunes would allow users to pay for those songs, which users get through inappropriate means.

Apple was no better than the old p2p pirates, Michael Speck, who works on technologies to reduce piracy, was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Questioning the Apple’s $25-a-year service, Speck said, If you can store all your pirate content, you won't need to buy content, will you?

Along with streaming music from other Apple devices, iTunes Match will reportedly scan users' hard drives for music acquired illegally, and match them with the authorized tracks in Apple's iTunes library, allowing users to access it anywhere.