“A December video tutorial teaching viewers how to modify a netbook to run Mac OS X has landed tech magazine Wired in hot water with Apple’s legal department,” Zach Spear reports for AppleInsider.
“Wired’s Brian X. Chen posted a video podcast to the Gadget Lab blog on December 1st that demonstrated the installation of an ‘illegal, hacked version’ of Mac OS X Leopard onto an MSI Wind netbook,” Spear reports. “‘I start out by telling you where to download the hacked operating system software,’ Chen wrote. ‘You’ll also need to download and install a copy of OSX86 tools. Then I walk you through the steps of how to put the OS on a USB flash drive (at least 4GB) to copy it onto the netbook.'”
Spear reports, “Just hours ago, Chen sent an update to his Twitter account: ‘Just found out Apple is suing Wired for my video tutorial on hacking netbooks to run Mac OS X. One hell of a way to start off the day.’ It later turned out that Chen misunderstood the situation, and a formal complaint has not been lodged with the US court system… Apple has most likely sent a cease-and-desist letter to Condé Nast Publications, Wired’s parent company, rather than suing for monetary damages.”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
hmmmm…
While in general I don’t see too much wrong with spreading this around from person to person (though any of this violates the agreement you make when you BUY the software…I don’t like people flaunting illegality in ANY venue.
Now if Apple will just make a small netbook so I can use in coach class on an airplane, people won’t need to do this stupid hack!
Hopefully they do sue, and this ass-clown looses his job. Encouraging people to use – in his own words – ‘hacked’ software and engage in an activity that violates OSX’s EULA is irresponsible and reprehensible.
Wings2Sky –
They make 2 actually.. the iPhone and the iPod Touch
Apple Legal is set to KILL!
If feels so nice every time.
The whores over at Gizmodo have put a copy of the video up (they say) but it doesn’t actually load. The world sure is a sh*t heap when reputable magazines like Wired don’t see anything wrong with promoting the Pirate Bay website and host an illegal hacking video, and trash-hounds like Gizmodo immediately post it just to get hits and “cred.” It’s like the whole world is run by idiot teenagers.
Whatever happened to “do the right thing?”
Jeremy, “Whatever happened to “do the right thing?””
Wired generally does the left thing.
I’m going to show everyone how to rip-off Wired’s Mag’s articles and use them on their sites and publications.
What do you think, Wired won’t care that I’m riping them off.
Dumba$$ should be fired as well as the editor. Damages anyone?!
Just found out Apple is suing Wired for my video tutorial on hacking netbooks to run Mac OS X. One hell of a way to start off the day.
Translation: “For whatever reason, somebody is probably going to try and pin the blame on ME. Stupid.”
@ ron
but, but … the left thing *is* the right thing (usually)
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
I’m sure somehow the DMCA can be brought into this discussion…
does this mean i can’t post my how to breaking into wired magazine’s publishing house and taking a copy for free to read of wired’s magazine? what has the world come to??
Jeremy … No Politics!
I can understand Apple suing over the illegal download of their OS. Actually, they HAVE to in order to uphold the copyright. I’d be more likely to get upset about this if they were talking about installing a legally purchased version of the OS on that P’oC netbook. This, however, is piracy – THEFT – impure and simple. As good as it gets as a reason to sue.
@igads
true! apparently everything at http://www.magazinecity.com is free to use. just grab whatever image and text.
This is the perfect opportunity to take down all of the offending websites. Any site/company/individual that posts this video are liable for monetary damages from posting this video. Apple can now legally sue them into financial oblivion. <Mr. Burns>Excellent…</Mr. Burns>
I think they did the LEFT thing in NAZI Germany, The Soviet Union, Cambodia, N. Korea, Cuba and Red China, turned out pretty good for them didn’t it?
OH WAIT, nevermind, just lost another HUNDRED MILLION PLUS Citizens – theft is THEFT – and TYRANNY is TYRANNY!
no matter how much you hate the Right in AMERICA – TYRANNY it aint! – we FREE people from that crap ! (or at least we try to)
Condé Nast Publications needs to fire Chen and remove the How To, ASAP. Then they need to actively peruse anyone else who posts this content. Running unethical material is the reason old media companies are going down the tubes. Condé Nast Publications has the choice ethics or no ethics.
Wired management needs to have a good house cleaning too, as they’ve run many of the Steve Job’s health stories lately and they’ve run a bunch of other ethically questionable stories too. Condé Nast Publications just needs to clean house at Wired starting at the top and working their way down.
It’s funny how there’s a completely different reaction to rampant theft of music, isn’t it?
Crap like “musicians should let everyone have their music for nothing and get their money from live gigs”. How about “Apple should let everyone have their software for nothing and get their money from hardware sales”?
Wired should be sued? But what if a grandmother or 12 y.o. girl posted a video tutorial about hacking OS X – would they be immune to litigation?
What happened to “Do the right thing”? But what’s wrong with “sharing”?
It sure is a confusing world…
I have been buying and using Macs since 1984. Heck, I had a Lisa in 1983. Since then, I have personally owned at least 15-20 Macs, been responsible for the purchase of scores more, and have been a Mac guru for many others. I have an iPhone and several iPods. I have been an Apple stockholder since 2001.
But… the lack of a Mac netbook is really beginning to irk me, and since it seems likely that Apple will NOT release a Mac netbook in 2009, it is a near certainty that I will be buying a MSI Wind and putting OSX on it. I will buy a copy of OSX, sorta like a carbon offset. It seems to me, if for personal purposes I hack a computer and install OSX (and take the risk of screwing it up), and I don’t do this as a commercial service, my conscious should be pretty clear.
I should mention that I am going to be spending several weeks in China this summer and I don’t want to lug around my MacBook Pro, and buying an Air – and risking its loss during the trip – really doesn’t appeal to me, especially when the cost of a Wind plus OSX is only $450.
That’s my story and I am sticking to it.
@ Mister Ejag,
Fascism, the political name for the type of government that Hitler’s Germany, Franco’s Spain and Mussolini’s Italy all had was an example of the extreme right, not the extreme left.
You’d know that if you were old enough to call Tricky Dicky Nixon a Fascist.
Uh, copyright violation is NOT theft. It is – well, a copyright violation, and is not a violation of criminal law.
Theft is a violation of criminal law, and State law at that. Copyright law is Federal law, not State.
Criminal law can land you in jail, but civil violations will normally get you fined.
@ Ralph and Willie G
Author of the video strongly suggested that anyone using the hack, buy an authentic copy of MAC OSX. I agree with Ralph, Apple needs to offer a netbook, or at least license its OS to other manufactures so that consumers would have more choice. I agree with Newsweeks accessment of Apples’ Annocuments at MacWorld “Steve now is not the time to be introducing a $2800 laptop.”
Willie G loses when he uses loose grammar.
@ Al!
While TECHNICALLY TRUE – Hitler & Muss were leftist, by our history books, but they were no more rightwing than today’s Democrats are actually (so-called) Liberal. Nixon was no more a Fascist than you and I are – I will grant you that Tricky Dick was corrupt though, but not a Fascist. I am 50y/o and am classified as African American (Black to me), so I have an idea of what freedom is, and who is typically on the side of the same. That Teams name begins with an R and ends with an N – check out YOUR history.
But we still live in a country, where we can agree to DISagree, w/o killing each other.
Peace!
DLMeyer said: ” Jeremy … No Politics!”
=========================
Why don’t you tell Ron that? He started it.