Re: [Xen-users] How much room needed for MacOSX on Xen?

[Simon Hobson <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 02:15 +0100 11/12/08, Stefan de Konink wrote:
> Thorolf Godawa wrote:
> > at least in Germany that is not correct!
> >
> > I can go in a store and buy the retail-version of MacOS X.
> >
> > After I bought it, I can install it where ever I want, if there are any
> > EULAs that prohibit it they are just not valid, because you must see and
> > accept them BEFORE you buy the product!
> Extend this to the complete European Union. Tying is prohibited.
Tying might be, but this isn't a case of tying. It has been found 
several times in court that a shrink-wrap licence (ie the EULA you 
have to accept) IS acceptable provided you are given the opportunity 
for a FULL refund if you decline to accept it. Remember, you are not 
buying the software, you are buying a licence to run it - and failure 
to abide by the licence would be a civil matter between the software 
vendor (in this case Apple) and you. Also, because it is a licence to 
use the software, and not purchase of goods, then it sidesteps a LOT 
of protections - for example, with physical goods there is a 
principal that once you sell something then you cannot control it's 
future use or resale, but with a software licence you can.
That is the situation in the UK, and I believe in the whole (or at 
least most of) of Europe.

But don't get too excited by the possibility of getting a court to 
agree with you, because ...
In the US it is a criminal offence (something you can be locked up 
for) to defeat protection mechanisms (under their Digital Millenium 
Copyright Act). The same act makes it a criminal offence to watch a 
DVD on Linux as that involves bypassing the copy protection. Since OS 
X does have a protection measure to make it run only on Apple 
hardware, it is a criminal offence to fake a TPM to make it run. - 
and Apple have invoked this against some outfit flogging Mac clones.
The same law is coming here, sooner or later. It's been talked about, 
and there are powerful commercial lobbying groups (ie the music, 
film, and software big names) that want this. What better to shift 
copyright abuse from a civil matter (where the copyright owner foots 
the bill for investigation and process) to a criminal matter where 
public authorities (eg police etc) do it AND the person just trying 
to watch their DVD at home can be sent to prison (heck of a "chilling 
effect" that).
And the same law also covers making or supplying tools to defeat 
protection mechanisms - that's why there are a number of software 
authors who cannot safely visit the US as they would be liable for 
arrest as soon as they touched US soil.


Only slightly related, I've been trying to get our Office of Fair 
Trading to look into Apple's (illegal in my opinion) control of the 
secondary market in spare parts. Ie Apple (along with other computer 
manufacturers) are currently allowed an exemption that allows them to 
control who can sell their spare parts, and they can make it a 
condition of having a contract to be an authorised service provider 
that you will not sell parts on. Not surprisingly, this means that 
getting an Apple product repaired costs a lot more than it should AND 
it means I can't buy parts and do it myself. I got as far as 
persuading them that (in their language) "my argument has merit" but 
they had bigger fish to fry and wouldn't do anything.
Anyway, enough of the politics !

--
Simon Hobson

Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books.

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