[OT] EULA and legality

[Roger Eller]

I would suspect that until the populace of the hackintosh community reach a
number which either threatens sales of Apple-branded hardware, or that
community becomes a support burden on Apple, they will likely be ignored.

Even the hackintosh community, in their own way, discourage software
piracy.  It may not be in line with the Apple EULA, but the consensus is
that if you want to play, then you should pay.  If you run OS X on non
Apple hardware, elect not to use iCloud (a service for people who own
Apple-branded hardware), but participate in the Apple Store economy by
purchasing software, Apple is making money.  30% per purchase from people
who would otherwise be running Windows is not bad - if - those users can
remain self-sufficient.  Hackintosh users that would expect, and even
demand Apple support... well, that just wouldn't work, obviously.

~Roger


On Sat, Sep 8, 2012 at 12:25 PM, Richard Gaskin
<ambassador at fourthworld.com>wrote:

> Of course the OS X EULA limits use of OS X to "Apple branded hardware",
> which is why the topic is disallowed at the Ubuntu forums because they run
> a tight ship and do not allow any discussion of "illegal activities".
>
> I doubt anyone here in this developer forum would openly advocate
> violating Apple's EULA, and for the record I don't either.
>
> That said, apparently a great many people run OS X in VMs on non-Apple
> systems, and even as the main OS on non-Apple systems, so while Apple's
> intent is clear it's at least physically, if not legally, possible to
> bypass it.
>
> I observe that there are many thousands of Web pages devoted to the topic,
> and even one site that sells non-Apple-branded computers on which you can
> choose to have them install your choice of Windows, Linux, or OS X:
> <http://quocomputer.com/>
>
> Quo's been doing this since 2009, and last time I talked with the owner
> about this he says he's not received a cease-and-desist from Apple yet.
>
> What distinguishes Quo from Psystar and other true cloners is that Quo
> doesn't *ship* computers with OS X installed.  What you buy is a computer
> with no OS, and then as a separate service you can elect to have them
> install any of the three most popular OSes you choose - even all three in a
> triple-boot configuration.
>
> This article gives a little more background on Quo:
> <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/09/10/psystar-is-dead-long-live-quo-computer/>
>
> Whether this "service" approach will pass muster with Apple's legal team
> is beyond the scope of my knowledge.  Neither Quo nor AFAIK any of the
> hackintosh web sites have received cease-and-desist letters from Apple
> Legal, so it appears the legality of this approach may be currently
> untested.
>
> It may be that if the clause restricting use of OS X to "Apple branded
> computers" were tested in court, it may not survive and would open the door
> to similar "services", which would explain why the multinational giant's
> vast legal resources have not been applied to such cases.  With OS X's mere
> ~10% of the desktop market there's no way anti-monopoly laws could come
> into play, but there may be an argument for restraint of trade.  I dunno;
> I'm no lawyer.
>
> In some respects the situation is similar to the famous Nintendo game
> cartridge suits.  But it's worth noting that while the results have been
> mixed across different jurisdictions, aside from an anomalous victory for
> the Divineo Group in France the global trend has apparently favored
> Nintendo:
> <
> http://www.pcworld.com/article/184075/nintendo_loses_major_antipiracy_lawsuit_in_france.html
> >
>
> So it may also simply be that Apple Legal has bigger fish to fry, and just
> hasn't bothered sicking the dogs on the hackintosh community. Yet.
>
> I would never advise anyone to willfully violate any EULA, but apparently
> if one chooses to do so by installing a purchased copy of OS X onto
> hardware of his own choosing and keeps a low profile about it, the odds of
> getting in the cross-hairs of Apple Legal appear slim.
>
> --
>  Richard Gaskin
>  Fourth World
>  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
>  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
>  Follow me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/FourthWorldSys
>
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