Telus Ringtones - Green Eggs and Scam

Like most people in North America I have a cell phone. Nowadays these things do so much more than enable you the ability to call someone. My Nokia 6265i for example has a 2 megapixal camera. It takes videos. It has an FM radio. It plays MP3's on it's micro SD card. It has bluetooth so I can easily connect to my computer to update my contacts (Note: added software is needed). There are countless other applications on the phone like games, alarm clocks and of course your internet fix if you're in a pinch. Who hasn't checked the scores on their favorite sports team when you're away from the tv? So apart from my cell phone not being able to make me some toast or vacuum the kitty litter up that the cats endlessly drag about the condo, this phone does it all. Or does it?

Nope. I cannot play my own homemade ringtones, or any ringtone that you don't buy from Telus. I find this quite maddening. I can legally purchase a song from iTunes and create a 30 second ringtone from it, upload it to my phone and when I go to use the tone I get the lovely "Not Allowed By Activation Key" message. This has to do with DRM (Digital Rights Management) and I understand about piracy and copyright issues but this is crazy.

Here's why I think this is all a money grab. I just went to the Telus site. The ringtone I want is Galaga. It's an old video game I used to play...and yes I'm a geek. The tone is 10 seconds long...yes I timed it. Telus is selling that diddy for a cool $3.50 + Applicable Carrier Charge (whatever the hell that is). Now, I have recently purchased music off the iTunes website. One song is 99 cents there. Considering that the average song is 4-6 minutes long you can see my disgust in the obvious robbery that's happening with ringtones. And just to add to the two x four in my side I recently had to send my phone away to get it reset. I had a few ringtones on there but alas, they are gone. You'd think Telus would know which ones I purchased so I could download it to the SAME phone again but no. I have to buy them. You've got to be kidding me right? No wonder hacking and piracy are such large issues nowadays.

I do have to mention that when I had to send my phone away Telus gave me a loaner. It was the exact phone and even the same colour. I uploaded my contacts from my computer and everything was pretty much business as usual. I didn't have to learn a new phone which for me is like winning the lottery. So, nicely done Telus but come on, give us a break on the ringtones if you're not going to allow us to use our own. If you'd charge 25 cents each I'm sure I'd have hundreds.