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Apple cracks down on ‘OSx86’ websites, sends ‘cease and desist’ orders

Thursday, August 18, 2005 · 8:26 am · 28 Comments

Apple seems to be cracking down (or making a show of cracking down?) on websites that have posted videos of Mac OS X for x86 running on non-Apple PCs. The company has sent “cease and desist” orders to Apple/Mac news websites and others, demanding that the sites remove links to the videos showing “hacked” versions of Mac OS X running on non-Apple certified systems. MacBidouille reports receiving “an amazingly aggressive email asking for the immediate removal of all links to the videos showing OSX x86 booting from non-Apple certified SDK PC. We have removed the requested links, but we deeply think that it will not change anything regarding the problem affecting Cupertino. Indeed, Apple is using its legal department only when things go really wrong.”

MacBidouille reports, “The video that we have published was only posted online to prove our comments and news, and to avoid to be considered as a Mac-dedicated rumor site. We did not provide any link to website describing the procedure and so on. Because it is also clear for us that installing OSX x86 on a non-certified Apple SDK PC is illegal, both regarding the Copyright and the NDA signed by developers. We have never supported illegal action and we will not change our point of view on this topic.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s either genuinely surprised that this happened and very upset about all of this or this is phase three of the “Harrell Dvorak Prophesy”* (ominous organ music) which states:

“Apple will give thousands, possibly millions, of people a taste of Mac OS X running full speed on their own PCs. Apple’s giving their potential future customers a free taste, that’s what they’re doing. It’s a try-before-you-buy deal.” – Harrell
“Allow for Apple to pretend to fight the OS getting out into the wild, so it can then say, ‘There was nothing we could do. This is the OS that people apparently want and need.’” – Dvorak

Could the otherwise frighteningly smart people at Apple really have thought that ‘OSx86′ wouldn’t leak to ‘generic’ PC hardware?

*The “Harrell Dvorak Prophesy” is sort of like Shoemaker Levy. Not as icy, but highly prone to violent collision with software’s current vaporous gas giant, Microsoft. Harrell gets top billing because he called his sighting in first.

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Comment Feed

28 Comments

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dix99

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 1:36 pm · Reply

It could be that if you get it out now, you can find out how it will be hacked & then fix the problem early. Also goes for viruses, so when it’s offically released, you’ve got less problems.
IBM

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 1:45 pm · Reply

Yeah, because clearly, we weren’t clever enough to pull off a hardware DRM scheme.
odyssey67

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 1:54 pm · Reply

LordRobin:

As for your last point, that the Mac install base will be majority PPC for years, and thus any DRM solution requiring an Intel-based Mac will fail, I would agree with you if the assumption that Apple will continue to make future versions of OSX fully compatible with PPC. However, I don’t believe tha assumption to be true.

First, it flies in the face of past actions by Apple. This is a company all too willing to cut the strings when they see a good enough reason to do so. Usually this simply relates to profit, but sometimes they just do it to appease their media suppliers. One example of the latter; past versions of iTunes – such as the one that allowed unlimited file sharing over the web – won’t work with newer versions of the MacOS, or even with the iTMS. Apple did that on purpose so the major media companies wouldn’t get their panties in a knot over the possibility of illegal file sharing. For an example of the former; buying Tiger when it first came out did not grant me access to the newest iLife software – apparently I have to pay extra for that. Yet if I want to keep up with the newest features of iPhoto & iMovie, that’s the imposed choice I’m given.

I would say that this is stuff you will find most corporations willing to do, so this is no special knock on Apple. However, it is no hard feat for me to imagine that once Macintels are online, Apple will start ‘decontenting’ the PPC versions of OSX (for as long as they actually sell such a thing) in order to get people to upgrade their hardware ASAP. They might still sell a PPC version of the OS, and the software of course, that does MOST of the things the Macintel versions can. But in order to get ALL the good stuff – to be able to be part of the iPodVideo (or whatever they’ll call it) phenomena – you’re S.O.L with out an x86 machine … which will obviously have DRM.

In this sense, Apple probably believes they will be able to satisfy both constituencies – corporate demands for DRM hardware on the really juicy video-centric devices (and the OS/software they run), and those still running PPC (“Sorry guys … here you go with the stripped down stuff, but the future is Now if you want the rest”). Personally, I think they will run into more problems than they suspect, number one being that soon enough the word will get out that PPC machines aren’t ready for that kind of ‘forced obsolesence’. Nevertheless, I’m sure this is the strategy Apple has in mind.
The Other Option

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 2:15 pm · Reply

Like I posted on another occasion, Apple could be using it to let the hackers find most of the holes allowing OS X to be run on generic x86 hardware. Why pay somebody to do it when you can get it for free?
awesome!

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 3:14 pm · Reply

*The “Harrell Dvorak Prophesy” is sort of like Shoemaker Levy. Not as icy, but highly prone to violent collision with software’s current vaporous gas giant, Microsoft. Harrell gets top billing because he called his sighting in first.

I nearly blew coffee over my monitor when I read that… Luckily, I quickly turned to the left and blew coffee on my sleeping cat… who is now in the other room, seriously pissed off at me, licking myself clean (and apparently not too fond of the taste of coffee, either!)… thanks a lot MDN. Now my pussy is mad at me! hehehe
Virtual-Twin

Friday, August 19, 2005 - 12:50 am · Reply

Apple printed custom serialized DVD-ROMs for the OS X intel version and didn’t tell anyone (yet). They’ll be able to track down the developer who did this in no time

odyssey67: Please remove that tinfoil hat, it doesn’t work, they can still read your mind
Benton

Friday, August 19, 2005 - 1:11 am · Reply

Virtual-Twin,
Thanks for the additional insight. Make the perps pay!
Odyssey67

Friday, August 19, 2005 - 5:50 am · Reply

VirtualTwin:

You don’t want to be inside my mind pal, trust me – it’s an ugly scene.

Seriously though, I’ve been shopping this theory around for awhile, on a few different sites, and while I get the conspiracy theory cracks, I also get quite a few people who realize that it’s the only explanation – thus far – that best fits available facts. NOT the publicity releases mind you, but what is documented knowledge regarding performance issues, roadmaps, supply capacity, timelines, blah blah … you get the picture.

What comes next are the “so whats”; as in, ‘The Deal is done and we all must just get over it’. My thing is that ‘getting over it’ in this context (in many contexts, really) is sort of like denial – that anything bad has happened, or could happen further as a result – and I just don’t deal in that. Decisions have consequences, and it’s never too late to make amends for a bad one.

Admitedly, it doesn’t happen often – especially not in the high powered world of corporations or politics – but that doesn’t mean that thinking people have to just sit back with the rest of the crowd and simply watch the train wreck. And if a miracle of reconsideration is possible, it certainly won’t happen in an environment where we all tell the Emperor his new clothes look great, when in fact he’s buck nekkid.

I also realize I could be completely wrong about my take on this. I’m just waiting for someone to actually provide an alternative explanation, that does more than regurgitate the Macintel Announcement’s talking points. When I see it, believe me, I will throw myself on everyone’s mercy and ask for forgiveness.

Until then, pass the tin foil … I think I feel another signal coming in.