OSx86 Project served with DMCA violation notice, pulls forum until futher notice

65 Comments

The OSx86 Project Forum this morning features the following announcement:

(OFFLINE Board Offline) 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.

Most-recently, OSx86 reported on a hidden poetic warning to would-be Mac OS X for x86 hackers from Apple and that hacking guru Maxxuss has announced preliminary patches for Apple’s Mac OS X 10.4.4 for Intel. News reports such as these remain on the x86 site, but the forum has been taken offline due to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act violation notice.

There is no word from OSx86 about who initiated the complaint that resulted in the DMCA violation notice.

The OSx86 Project Forum offline message is here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “sailfish” for the heads up.]

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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple’s Mac OS X 10.4.4 for Intel cracked – February 15, 2006
Apple offers hidden poetic warning to would-be Mac OS X for x86 hackers – February 15, 2006

65 Comments

  7. Can’t Apple find something better to do for their lawyers than to resort to the god awful DMCA? I lose some respect for a company any time they use the DMCA to threaten people.

    I mean, come on. Is this project really hurting you Apple? Is the negativism from this worth as much as the positive vibes created from leaving these guys alone. Who cares if someone runs OS X on a Dell? I don’t think you are losing any sales over this. Its kind of like the record companies claiming lost sales when someone downloads a song that they had no intention of ever buying anyway.

    In fact, letting this person test OS X on his existing system may lead them to buy a Mac. Wow! What a brilliant concept.

    Reply

  8. Good for them. If these trolls want to run OS X, just buy a Mac like everyone else. Besides, it’ll work a damn site better than the piece of shit PC boxes they’re trying to illegally install OS X on anyway…

    Reply

  10. Jeff, one way this can hurt Apple is the dilution of their trademarks. I think Apple is right to go after any individuals or groups who engage in what is clearly a case of software piracy. It is piracy, because there is no way anyone can load a version of OSX on a non-Apple supported machine without stealing it or violating the terms of the Apple license.

    I agree with Dave H. If you want a free OS that will run on PowerPc or x86 architecture, get Ubuntu.

    Reply

  12. “What’s illegal about installing OSX on a PeeCee?”

    Because in order to do it you have to break the DMCA which is the law.

    I am also glad that dirt bag got shut down. I am all for the advancement of technology, but this is potentially very destructive to Apple’s business. They don’t license a version of their software to run on hardware other than Apple’s own. When they do, they will let you know about it. If you don’t like it tuff s**t go sit in the corner and run Lindows and STFU

    Reply

  14. Yes, this will clearly curb efforts to put OS X on a Dell box.
    You’re a bunch of morons if you actually believe that.
    You’re a bigger bunch of morons if this really matters to you.
    And you have to be a functioning retard to believe people who would use a hacked up, bug ridden, version of OS X on a Dell were actually going to buy a Mac anyway.

    The people who live to do crap like this aren’t exactly high on the Apple potential customer list.

    Stop caring about inane shit like this, life is too short. Go enjoy your Mac.

    Reply

  15. Jeff:

    Every company has the right to protect their property. Even companies that we don’t like. And we know who it is.

    We can even extend this to a personal level. You have the right to protect your property. If you don’t guess what happens to it.

    Reply

  16. “Oh, so it’s in the liscense agreement from Apple not to run OSX on non-apple hardware.”

    huh, You have to reverse engineer the propriatary OS X software in order for it to run on hardware other than Apple’s own. That is breaking so many copywrites it’s not even funny.

    Reply

  18. Ahhh, what the hell . . . I posted it a few days ago in the other thread about this “undertaking”. Seems even more apropos now:

    A hacker named Maxxuss
    Was quite sad and blue
    He longed for the Mac life
    But knew not what to do

    One day he awoke
    All smiling with glee
    He had an idea
    Hey, maybe it was three!

    He went to the PC
    All littered with notes
    He turned on his software
    And then cleared his throat

    “I have much to do”
    Said the hacker out loud
    “I must steal what I can,
    For this makes me proud”

    Nothing will stop me
    Not lawyers or fruit
    If they come a-callin’
    There’ll be no lawsuit

    For I’m a PC’er
    And I never do want
    ‘Cuz I steal what I need
    And this I do flaunt

    So lend me your ears
    And I’ll tell you a tale
    Of how I irked Apple
    With nary a sale

    I did it so loudly
    I did it so bold
    I did it in PJ’s
    Sometimes it was cold

    I hacked that darn BIOS
    I cracked their chip, too
    The code was so close
    I almost came through

    Then a bad sounding noise
    Perked up my ears
    It didn’t look good
    It confirmed all my fears

    Things went quite askew
    They sparked and they whined
    Alas, I’m a failure
    At this hacking, a crime

    Well, I’m not to be worried
    I’ve got a day job
    I’m not some teen wanker
    Nor a fat slob

    But my name is Maxxuss
    And I won’t be denied
    It is not for nothing
    That I tried and I tried

    I was not successful
    Didn’t know that I’d fail
    But I live overseas
    So I avoid jail!

    So to all you Mac users
    There’s just one more thing
    I never did like you
    Nor your fancy Mac bling

    One thing is for certain
    I will be back
    “You can’t beat old Maxxuss
    I’m too good a hack”

    And so ends the story
    Of a PC thief who
    Never did get it
    But it’s not really new

    And so, dear hacker
    We bid you “Adieux”
    It’s sad but it’s factual
    Maxxuss hadn’t a clue

    ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />

    Reply

  19. Jeff says “I mean, come on. Is this project really hurting you Apple?”

    Get real, dude. That’s like asking if the burglars who broke into your home and stole everything of value are really hurting you.

    That’s like asking if the Chinese steal your design for a machine, turn around and sell it in the US for less than cost of your manufacturing are hurting you.

    OSX is Apple. When Apple feels it wants OSX to run on PC hardware, it is Apple’s decision to make, and Apple’s financial gain to be had.

    Your comment is about the STUPIDEST thing I’ve ever read here. Cash in your life savings and buy a goddamn clue.

    Reply

  24. While “Just Wondering” was throwing around nasty names, here’s one he forgot: You have to be a mouth-breathing hacktard to think that these arrogant jerks were helping Apple in any way. Mac OS X is for Mac users. It is meant to sell Macs. It is not meant for 1337 H4XX0RZ who intend to pirate it to show off the size of their hacker wang.

    Seriously, how long did they think they could get away with this crap? If you want to hack, hack, but skulk in the shadows like the scofflaw you are. If you essentially shake your bare ass in Apple’s face on a public website, you should expect to be slapped down.

    The only surprising thing here is that it took this long to happen.

    Reply

  25. Can’t Apple find something better to do for their lawyers than to resort to the god awful DMCA?

    Don’t be silly. Apple is a publicly traded company. They have an obligation to their investors to pursue this to protect their property. You’re attitude is misdirected. If you don’t like what the DMCA enables corporations to do you need to take that up with your legislators, not Apple.

    I already told you all it was a DMCA violation. What did you expect to happen? Apple would just look the other way?

    Oh Christ, NPR just read Apple’s “hidden” poetic warning. Is Apple gonna serve them with a DCMA notice too?

    This is just stupid, or a lame attempt at sarcasm, Tommy Boy. The DMCA is not a means to pursue copyright violations, per se, among other things, it’s a means of prosecuting those who would circumvent protections placed by rights owners on their materials.

    Reply

  27. Apple certainly has the right to go after the hackers. I for one, however, would love to be able to legally install OS X on other hardware. There are some really cool laptops and towers out there that I would love to use if I could use OS X on them. The fact that they can only run Windows (I don’t go for the esoteric stuff like Linux) is a deal breaker.

    I totally dig the Apple gear but a box with two optical drives, a 9 in one media reader, 8 or nine usb ports and a reasonably slick case is attractive. The “PC” gear isn’t all junk – far from it.

    Reply

  30. It has nothing to do with the “Poetic Warning” as people call it.

    It’s because their forums encourage discussion about breaking OS X’s built-in system to prevent it from being installed on non-Apple hardware.

    It’s “the” place to go to talk about cracking Apple’s OS… Duh!! You will be served and spanked until you agree to not break the law anymore.

    OS X is not open source like it’s Darwin roots. Apple has a right here.

    Reply

  32. I’ve got Mac OS 10.4.3 running in VMWare, in Windows XP, on my Athlon 64 2.6GHz computer I built. It runs really well. I downloaded the Adobe Lightroom Beta 2 and played with it, grabbed Cinebench v9.5 last night and ran benchmarks. I was getting 268 rendering (single processor), 336 Shading (CINEMA 4D). intel iMac 2.0Ghz Macs are scoring 308 rendering (single processor) and 358 Shading (CINEMA 4D), for perspective. Running Cinebench in Windows, I was getting 365 rendering (single processor) and 432 Shading (CINEMA 4D).

    Reply

  35. Uhhhhh, “dude”, you’re an idiot…

    Informed: “Get real, dude. That’s like asking if the burglars who broke into your home and stole everything of value are really hurting you.”

    No it isn’t. It isn’t all like that. If they were selling knock-off iPods or giving you instructions on how to get free music off iTunes, then it would be like “asking if the burgulars who broke into your home and stole ‘everything of value’ are really hurting you.”

    This is more like taking some old lady’s garden gnome from her yard in the middle of the night. Yeah – she may notice one is missing and get a little upset, but it isn’t a big a deal.

    OS X quit being significant the moment Apple switched to Intel chips. They knew then (with reasonable certainty) that this was going to happen.

    Yeah, all this free publicity about OS X running on PC’s and getting the public all fired up about the chance at having a real alternative to Windows is just killing their stock price.

    Did the little poems get into the Intel version of the OS by accident? Not a chance…

    Get a life…

    Reply

  38. It’s easy to get evaluation copies of Mac OS X. Look at any torrent site. That’s where I grabbed a patched version of Mac OS 10.4.3 which runs on generic x86 hardware – I burned it to a DVD and installed it in VMWare, simple.

    Reply

  39. Tommy Boy, Jeff, Just Wondering, RC and other assortied idiots. This is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of law, which you obviously do not comprehend so shut the f–k up. As for any decision by Apple to allow OSX to be made available to run on PC’s, well that’s a business decision, which you obviously do not understand, so have another tall glass of shut the f–k up!

    Reply

  42. Here’s a thought, most users are not willing to go through all the hassle, plus with also no support from Apple there is a great possibility of crashes and data loss. And to top it off, a patch slash hack, that is made from a hacker that could have a it’s own type of rootkit able to steal your credit card numbers or other sensitive data. If I was a PC user I would be super suspicious and leave this alone. Just buy a Mac!

    Would any of you be willing to take that chance?? Sorry you would have to be a dumbass to install software from a hacker outside of the U.S. therefore avoiding prosecution, and install that on your computer. Why don’t you just send him all your private data?

    If opening a jpeg/trojan horse that asks for you for your admin password makes you a dumb-ass, installing this makes you King dumb-ass!

    Reply

  44. Jeff (and others)

    You’re missing the point!

    I live out here in South East Asia… Here its so simple to walk into a STORE and buy a ripped copy of MS Windows or just about any other software you want to get your hands on, Final Cut Pro, Shake, Maya, you name it. And the sad fact is, the majority of people in these parts of the world obtain their software that way (for $2 a time)..

    If people like this start making it easier to run cracked versions on Mac OSX on any plain old vanila box, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people will do so with NO plan ever to buy a licensed version of the software.

    Apple has to do something about it

    Reply

  45. Has the worm taken down all Macs except ours?????? Where is the news guys?

    Anyone affected by the Trojan?

    Should the Mac community put up a challenge to find a single person affected by this “best of class” OS X ‘virus’?

    Reply

  46. Being able to run OS X on generic PC hardware actually helps Apple and I say that as a stockholder with a lot — for me — invested in AAPL. People get a free OS X test drive and some will opt for a Mac at some point.

    Yes, Apple has to take legal action to defend its brand and prevent any liability for Apple for OS X not properly working on unapproved hardware. They will not have to fix drivers and provide support.

    BTW, Gates screamed bloody murder when hackers stole his Basic interpreter, but he later realized that the very theft he was complaining about locked in his market. Non paying users of his software robbed Bill Gates for a few years, but then he got to rob them for a few decades. Such a deal.

    Apple at some point needs to do some Altivec sort of thing, so that Macs will run OS X better than generic PCs can. Then Apple will reel in a bunch of formerly non paying customers. There is a hook in the apparently free OS X worm.

    Reply

  47. To all the clueless:

    OSX is the crown jewel of what makes a Macintosh a Macintosh.

    If your feeble minds consider the outright theft of a company’s main intellectual property the equivalent of stealing a garden gnome or some basic interpreter, than there is no hope for reasoning with you.

    You are lost to the world of utter stupidity and retarded intellect. Enjoy your shoot ’em up games, reality tv shows, and lite beer.

    Engineering an outright theft is NOT a free “test drive.” If you were really an Apple stockholder (instead of being a pissant poser) you would never say such a moronic thing. Surely you would have a modicum of business knowledge and/or sense.

    I have a life, thank you. Mine’s not in la la land.

    Reply

  48. re: INFORMED

    amen to what you said….I know as long as Hackers attempt to destroy the heart and soul of a Mac, people like you and me are here to expose those slime balls and let god be my witness, I will expose those scums..where ever they may appear!

    Reply

  50. “informed”:

    “Macintosh” is dead. Go to Apple’s web page and try to find the word “Macintosh”.

    Get with the times, man. Apple hasn’t sold anything called a “Macintosh” since the “Macintosh G3”.

    Apple killed “Macintosh” a long time ago.

    Reply

  51. Nick: “Go to Apple’s web page and try to find the word ‘Macintosh’.”

    This is fom Apple’s web site:

    “Searched for: MacintoshResults: 1 – 10 of about 1450”

    One of those hits was for “The Macintosh Products Guide”

    You certainly did not try very hard!

    Reply

  53. <color=orange>F</color> <color=blue>R</color> <color=red>U</color> <color=green>I</color> <color=yellow>T</color> <color=purple>Y</color> <color=orange>P</color> <color=blue>E</color> <color=red>B</color> <color=green>B</color> <color=yellow>L</color> <color=purple>E</color> <color=orange>S</color>

    Reply

  62. Win2OSX.net’s entire site was shut down, news at eleven.

    Actually, the news is in the AP:

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/02/17/financial/f163117S45.DTL

    or wherever else you prefer to get your AP feed.

    MDN MW: business

    Apple refuses to let crackers ruin their business. Apple makes most of its money off hardware. Trying to circumvent the sweet “packaged deal” that Apple provides would only eat away at its business.

    When the developer copies were hacked, I thought it was partly a marketing ploy on Apple’s part. Now it seems they are serious about this, as they should be.

    Reply

  63. I think it’s our civic duty to our country and the principles it was founded on that we violate the DMCA as much as possible. It’s wrong to make discussion of any topic illegal. Flat out wrong. I don’t give a flying fuck if discussing this particular topic runs afoul of what a multi-billion dollar corporation wants. It’s our right to talk about it.

    Reply

  64. Jooop:

    Discussing the ways and means of committing a crime is called “conspiring.”

    Conspiring to commit a crime is not “free speech.” It never has been. Conspiring would be actionable and punishable without the DMCA.

    A conspiracy to steal intellectual property or violate a copyright is not “a free exchange of ideas.” It is the open contemplation of a criminal activity.

    Reply

  65. “Don’t be silly. Apple is a publicly traded company. They have an obligation to their investors to pursue this to protect their property. You’re attitude is misdirected. If you don’t like what the DMCA enables corporations to do you need to take that up with your legislators, not Apple.”

    You need not read any further than this. Fantastic post effwerd!

    Reply

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