According to the Associated Press, users of iTunes in China have been unable to download music since Monday or so they complained. The reason for this may be the release of “Songs for Tibet - The Art of Peace,” a compilation of twenty songs by Sting, Alanis Morissette, Garbage, John Mayer and others, and a 15-minute talk by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader. It also draws attention to the censorship problem and how China had assured that it would permit open access during the Olympics.

This is the obvious consequence of Tibetan protesters who peacefully demonstrated during the Olympics. Michael Wohl, executive director of the New York City-based Art of Peace, said he believed the album was, without doubt, the cause of the block.

"We issued a release saying that over 40 (Olympic) athletes downloaded the album in an act of solidarity, and that's what triggered it," he said. "Then everything got blocked."

The digital album “Songs for Tibet” was released last Sunday. One day later complains from users not being able to use to login and purchase music from the Apple download service began appearing.

Nevertheless there is no comment from China yet. It’s true that Apple doesn’t have a direct Chinese presence for iTunes and Chinese users must connect to servers in other markets. Regarding the people from Apple, Wohl said: “They’re incredibly supportive people. They wouldn’t do anything like that. They support freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

Apple is still investigating to find out whether this was the actual cause of the download problem.