February 17th, 2006
Apple Invokes the DMCA to Shut Down “Mac OS for PC” Discussion Sites
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
I was wondering if and when this would happen. Two sites, the OSx86 Project and Win2osx.net were offline today. The main OSx86 Project site is actually up, but the front page of its forum says:
“Welcome! We’re sorry to report that despite our best efforts, the OSx86 Project has been served with a DMCA violation notice. The forum will be unavailable while we evaluate its contents to remove any violations present. We thank you for your patience in this matter.”
We Say: Not surprising, as the DMCA forbids the circumvention of copy protection schemes, and Apple did add a TPM to tie the MacOS to its own computers. According to News.com, though, “the law is generally understood to allow the theoretical discussion of circumvention techniques.” Of course, as you may recall from my earlier article on the RIAA / MPAA and Fair Use, just because it was OK before doesn’t mean it’s OK now.
David Johnston says:
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. However, I don’t think it’ll make a real dent in OS X (x86) piracy. I’m sure most people pirating OS X have to download the files/iso’s/whatever from somewhere (I don’t think these sites had all the necessary files available for download-if any at all) and instructions on how to use them could easily be packed in with the files. Of course, I’ve probably said too much. Maybe Apple will make me erase this comment too
February 17th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Improbus says:
Oh, for goodness sake. Just move the server to Europe and be done with it. Land of the free, indeed.
February 18th, 2006 at 11:42 am
Anonymous says:
Yeah because “land of the free” means “land of the free where it’s acceptable to break reasonable laws.”
Right.
*rolls eyes*
February 18th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Anonymous says:
Oops, forgot to add that that is meant for those that scoff at the “lack of freedom” when they find out (because they all “didn’t know” when they broke the law, right?) piracy is illegal.
This instance specifically…yeah. Lame on Apple’s part.
February 18th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Improbus says:
Yes, I love to obey laws that our “elected” representatives pass on behalf of their real constituents. That would be the people that give them money. The real pirates live in D.C.
February 19th, 2006 at 8:51 am
Bill M says:
I find it most ironic that Apple is so aggressively oursuing thought criminals. By chance, does either of those sites belong to Winston Smith?
February 20th, 2006 at 7:01 am
Cecil says:
I want to test the Mac OS software to decide whether to buy a Mac for my business. It’s crazy that there is no trial demo for Mac on PC when there is PC software for Mac.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:56 am