At least two torrent search sites (which we will not reprint here) today are showing a 4.27GB torrent for “Apple Mac OS X Leopard v10.5 WWDC Preview Beta.”
We assume Apple Legal will be one this as they were with Mac OS X Tiger.
“In December 2004, Apple sued three men, as well as unnamed others, in federal court in San Jose, Calif. The company said the men had posted developer versions of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger onto BitTorrent file-sharing servers ahead of the software’s official release. It settled one of the cases this March and another in April. Most of the details of the settlement were not made public,” Ina Fried reported for CNET News back in December 2005.
An “Alex Patterson” has posted screenshots of Mac OS X Leopard via Flickr here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “AWidgetIHaveNot” for the heads up.]
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple settles final lawsuit against Mac OS X Tiger prerelease leaker – December 14, 2005
Apple settles with man who ‘prereleased’ Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger – March 23, 2005
Apple Computer sues three for posting Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ on Web – December 21, 2004
I hope Apple sues the asses off whoever did this…
Yup, go get ’em. What is it with people and a lack of integrity?
All Apple software is serialized, this info is tracked by software updates. They probably have a very good idea who leaked it and that person will never see another beta from Apple again. Apple doesn’t get too nuts over it, because the cost of legally pursuing prosecution and it’s negative advertising isn’t worth it. Besides, Apple can track the proliferation of the stolen beta and analyze its spread, thus its popularity.
It could be more lack of security than lack of integrity.
When I still lived in my parent’s house (many moons ago), my brother made a tidy sum stealing my software and selling it, before I caught him.
It could be interns, assistants, relatives, or an unscrupulous developer who’s posted this. In any case, I’m sure Apple’s well-paid lawyers will find them.
Someone’s going to court.
Also, did you notice that it’s only 4.7 GB vs. Vista’s 10+ GB?
dang… can’t find it on Acquisition…
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Americans are sue-crazy
“M di L B Simoni” said: “All Apple software is serialized, this info is tracked by software updates”
Um, no, it’s not. This software was handed out about as anonymously as possible to developers at WWDC; there is no possible way (and I mean that in the strongest terms possible) for Apple to know which developer has which copy of it, short of making the connection through the torrent itself, and even then, it’s going to be very very hard.
And no, I’m not defending this; far from it. I paid nearly $3000 for my copy of Leopard (in travel, conference and lodging fees).
4.7 Gb is even more impressive if you consider it has all 4 versions on it…
32-bit PPC
64-bit PPC
32-bit Intel
64-bit Intel
Unlike Vista, the user doesn’t have to worry about these things or trying to locate 64-bit hardware drivers (which are difficult to find for Vista). This is why it will be a VERY long time before Windows moves into 64-bit technology. Microsoft is telling everyone that this “advanced” technology is ONLY for the science and graphics industry, and regular people should worry themselves about it. This is much like “MS-DOS is fine, don’t confuse yourself with a mouse and tiny icons. Text is quicker.”
Sadly, the overpaid “journalists” won’t have a clue how important 64-bit technology could be for the consumer, and they’ll never be able to fully appreciate how well Apple implemented it. In a 64-bit Mac, it runs 32-bit code natively, but in Vista, 32-bit code must use an emulator to be processed and their is very little incentive for developers to create 64-bit applications.
And the Windows world will continue to assume that the Mac world is the same as theirs. Even hidden far under the hood, Mac OS X is far more advanced than Vista could ever hope to be… and no one will ever know. But, it is this reason of fundamental differences that Mac will continue to far outpace Windows, because the Mac architecture PROMOTES advanced coding, while Windows’ archaic foundation will continue to make it evermore needlessly bloated, slower and non-secure.
When will Microsoft ever learn that painting a dinosaur will not prevent it from becoming extinct?
That is 4.7 gigs compressed. It is more like 13 or 14 gigs once you uncompress it. It also requires a dual layer dvd.
Why am I not suprised by this?
Add developers to the list of people you cannot trust along with doctors, lawyers, politicians, media, terrorists and women with deep voices.
Jackson:
It’s not all Americans. Just the liberals. That’s the only way that they can get what they want with little work – Sue, Sue, Sue.
My dear RandyMan:
I worked for Apple and I know very well that they know who has what computer (serialized) and what Apple software is on it. They will probably start with a list of Mac computer serial numbers that are currently running the build version that they handed out at the WWDC. They will see which software serial number is being propagated and simply track it backwards. This takes Apple about 30 minutes to do. Granted, they may not have the exact person, but in general, the first few people to install it on their Mac would be an originator. And if Apple matches the first few people against the WWDC attendee list, it should have it narrowed to one or two people.
Tracking digital software and hardware is a breeze.
This is why Torrent is rumored to be included in Leoapard.
So, Mr. Brooklyn, I guess we can say that if the liberals are the ones suing without pause, then the Republicans are just the ones responsible with the war and all attempts at world dominance.
keep the politics off the MDN!
BrooklynNYC,
Why make this a liberal vs. conservative issue? Crazy… Another divisive person, who I’ll assume is conservative.
Regarding the thievery, it’s a shame folks can’t just do what they agreed to do in the NDA.
Integrity is the issue, not politics.
MW: “met” as in: Of the sue-happy people BrooklynNYC has personally met, how many have been liberal and how many have been conservative?
In the voice of Mr. Burns from the iconic Fox cartoon, The Simpsons, “Smithers, release the hounds.”
You Americans have no idea, your so-called liberals are way to the right of centre and your Conservatives are so far right of centre they are practically left.
I’ve got 2 words to describe my copy of leopard running on a macbook pro.
Kernel Panic
Is this a new “feature” Steve..?
3 kernel panics in one day…just looking at email…I love it.
MS plants…
Of course, Apple knew this would happen. The lack of honesty in society is appalling, but that is the way it is. Did anybody really think that this would not happen? I just hope Apple left some misleading hints in the code, just to throw off Microsoft.
I don’t want it, when i try leopard I want it to work flawlessly (so i won’t ’till 5.2 is out)
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…whereas conservatives think we should all just sit back and let big corporations do what they please. Who cares about ethics when there’s a profit to be made?
I can’t believe how hawkish MDN readers are. What do you care that it leaked? I’m going to download it as soon as I get home. Apple gives it to developers only because they don’t want a million home users installing it and calling tech support. No one who downloads this version is going to not buy leopard because they got a developer preview that is allegedly not very stable. We’re all going to play with it to see what is new and what we like/don’t like and when the real one comes out I’ll get that too.
When people leak the gold master you can angry. The only reason to download that is to avoid paying for it. If that’s the only reason you want this developr build then you’re an idiot.
I am sorry for the guy who spent 3 grand to get his copy but there are certainly cheaper ways to do it and if someone wants it to actually develop for it, but doesn’t have extra cash to give Apple, fine by me. Apple should be working on making it easier to be a mac developer anyway. In several ways MS has always been better to their developers and that strategy has its rewards.
Vista = 4.7GB of Apple code-ripoff and another 9GB of crappy M$ code.
Jeez.
SB