Why can't we discuss the Hackintosh?

silvine

It's covered widely elsewhere online and as far as I can see it's not illegal so how come we can't discuss it here?

Sad Professor

I’m not sure of the exact legality of it, but I think it’s considered copyright infringement. However, even putting aside the legal implications, I don't think hackintosh discussion would be in the spirit of the forum.

silvine

I could understand if it's copyright infringement but the problem is it's not in the spirit of the forum, surely we could discuss it in the building/upgrading forum?

Also while I'm on the subject how come this forum is listed under the operating system category. Surely Mac refers to the hardware not the software? It would make more sense if the forum was callled OSX.

Sad Professor

I think the forum's placement under Operating System was just a mistake made when the forum was created. I and others have argued in the past that the it should be moved to C&T. It's not really a big deal, but it probably does result in many first time posters posting in Laptops or AMD because they don't know the Mac forum exists or think it's only for discussion of the operating system.

ZENER

There's also the impending copyright issues to which boards will be become liable. Any links to or uploads of anything that is copyrighted could see our favorite website shut down if the minister decides to ratify the new laws !

There are some great sites dedicated to the hack, everyone who is interested goes to these sites and reads and makes the decision to hack or not based on the info there. Me included But I do own 6 or 7 real Macs so I don't feel so bad about experimenting - but I don't wish to be judged so please don't . . . but it is in contravention of the Apples T&Cs for installation of Mac OS X.

Ken

Sad Professor

ZENER wrote: »

There are some great sites dedicated to the hack, everyone who is interested goes to these sites and reads and makes the decision to hack or not based on the info there. Me included But I do own 6 or 7 real Macs so I don't feel so bad about experimenting - but I don't wish to be judged so please don't . . . but it is in contravention of the Apples T&Cs for installation of Mac OS X.

Reported... for judgment.

I actually toyed with the idea of putting together a hackintosh myself years ago, but I'm just not technically inclined enough. I've found it far too easy to induce kernel panics on my friends' hackintoshs. I buy Macs precisely so that I don't have to screw around with that stuff.

jonon9

Curious about this as well the way I always see it is that once you legally buy the operating system you be fine as thats all apple owns. I mean macs and pc's are made up of the same hardware.

Colonel Panic

But you are legally buying an OS that you agree to use on Apple hardware. It's all in the incredibly boring license agreement!

I don't really care about Hackintosh talk myself, other than finding the whole thing a bit tiresome. All that messing about defeats the purpose! I guess i don't mind paying for actual Apple hardware!

Sad Professor

Yeah, the problem is you don’t own the OS. When you buy a copy of Mac OS X you’re only buying a license to use it. Part of the license agreement states that you have to use it on Apple hardware. So I assume this would be kind of like buying a DVD and thinking that it gives you the right to screen it in public, when in fact doing so would be a breach of copyright.

Red Alert

Apple's T&C's are just apple's T&C's - surely legality should decide what can be discussed, and to me discussing hardware that could run Mac OS can't be wrong.

Sad Professor

I don’t know, but isn’t the whole point of copyright that the piece of work in question isn’t yours and that you are only allowed use it because the copyright holder has licensed it to you? If you don’t have a license or have one but aren’t in compliance with it, then isn’t that a breach of copyright law?

Any copyright experts around?

ZENER

Apple have a whole team of them . . . ask Samsung !!

Ken

silvine

And yet, and yet there's lots of threads elsewhere on this forum which discuss jail-breaking. Surely that's in breach of the IOS T&C too?

The reason I ask is I've spent a fortune on Apple products over the past few years and I would like to understand a bit more about how they work.

MiniNukinfuts

Jailbreaking is legal...in America anyway

opinion guy

Sad Professor wrote: »

I’m not sure of the exact legality of it, but I think it’s considered copyright infringement. However, even putting aside the legal implications, I don't think hackintosh discussion would be in the spirit of the forum.

Whats all this 'not in the spirit of the forum' stuff about ?!?!

Rulmeq

opinion guy wrote: »

Whats all this 'not in the spirit of the forum' stuff about ?!?!

It's a Mac forum, and that means the synergy of Apple hardware with Apple software. Essentially a hackintosh is a PC (or a self build, or whatever, but not a Mac), it would be like trying to discuss Windows in this forum, simply because you can run it on a Mac (bootcamp, or virtualisation)

Liameter

I have a used Dell Mini 1011 that I bought of eBay ready to use.

I also use a brand new micro ATX PC with the following:

Two internal 1TB Hard Drives,
4GB SDRAM,
an i5 760 quad core CPU,
Firewire and
USB cards,
Gigabit Ethernet,
DVD-RW dual layer "Lightscribe" optical drive and an
nVidia 8400 GS graphics card.
mini PCI-E to PCI-E x1 wireless adapter with 2 antennae
BCM94322MC Wireless card 802.11n

This was built for me at a cost of 550 GBP.

The thing I like about this one is that it has easy to upgrade/replace parts and it was quite cheap compared with the cost of a "real" one. Both are running my favourite OS and so far have been trouble-free.

Carawaystick

Sad Professor wrote: »

Yeah, the problem is you don’t own the OS. When you buy a copy of Mac OS X you’re only buying a license to use it. Part of the license agreement states that you have to use it on Apple hardware. So I assume this would be kind of like buying a DVD and thinking that it gives you the right to screen it in public, when in fact doing so would be a breach of copyright.

If you buy a copy of osx of a third party, then you have no contract with apple inc, and there's an implied license to use the software you bought off retailer a ltd

It would be like buying a sony pictures dvd in your favourite bricks'n'mortar shop and then finding out that sony will only allow you each the film if its played on a sony dvd/blue ray player.

muggyog

From Apple EULA

You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-branded computer, or to enable others to do so

Its all pretty well tied down here. Slight change in Lion for use on multiple Mac's.

the “Apple Software”) are licensed, not sold, to you by Apple Inc. (“Apple”) for use only under the terms of this License. Apple and/or Apple's licensor(s) retain ownership of the Apple Software itself and reserve all rights not expressly granted to you.

Liameter

I believe that the End User License (sic) Agreement has never been tested in court. It may not be enforceable. In any case, such usage as discussed would be a breach of contract, not a criminal offence.

That's not to suggest that it should be condoned or that boards.ie should be obliged to host any discussion which suggests that it should. And, with currently impending legislation, it's understandable that they would not want a discussion of questionable integrity, which, for example, specifically pointed to suppliers of the required equipment or to instructions about constructing such equipment.

Talisman

"Apple branded" = White Apple logo

Do they still include those stickers with hardware purchases?

Liameter

They did with my last MacBook and I have stuck one on my ... erm .. black box. Does that make it OK?

But the original ones were the Apple logo with coloured stripes.