Posted on 06/08/2009 1:46:08 AM PDT by Swordmaker
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If Apple owns the OS, why should they not be able to restrict it’s use?
Apple with 10% or the US personal computer market and less than 5% of the Worldwide market, is not in a monopoly position. Ergo, they cannot be accused of "anti-competitive" behavior like Microsoft has several times been convicted of committing.
As a matter of law, as has already determined and ruled on by the judge in the case, neither Apple or any other company can be considered illegally monopolistic about their own copyrighted, trademarked, or patented products.
They may own the rights to the OS, but that shouldn't matter in this case. From what I know, PsyStar was simply buying legal, retail copies of the MacOS and installing them on their products. I see nothing wrong with this.
The doctrine of first sale should, in a good world, trump any of Apple's claims.
I never bought a copy of a Mac OS, but I would bet you dollars to donuts that the restrictions on the purchaser are spelled out in abundantly clear language.
Of course they are. However, the common law doctrine of first sale should trump this because as I own that particular copy of Mac OS (or any other product), I should be allowed to do whatever I want with that product, be it resell it at a profit or loss, use it as a Frisbee, feed it to the dog, or whatever provided I do not make unauthorized copies of the product.
Apple's lawsuit should be thrown out. No business should have the right to dictate to me how I should use their product after I have purchased a legitimate, legal copy of it. If Apple wants to control who uses its OS, it should consider renting it out instead.
I just nipped over to the Apple store web-page, and the Software License Agreement is right there, spelled out in black-and-white. It permits the purchaser to install the software on “Apple-labeled” computers. Seems pretty clear to me.
Contracts can contain any text that the authors want. However, if the law trumps what is in the text, then that text is null and void.
Apple dictates to you how you can use their product before you buy it.
And once I buy it, Apple's rights to the product cease. As long as I do not violate Apple's intellectual property rights by making illegal copies of Mac OSX, Apple should not be allowed to dictate to me how to use my copy of the product.
So, does Psystar have this OS running off the distribution disk, or do they copy the OS to a non-”Apple-labeled” PC hard-drive and run it from there. If so, that would be an unauthorized copy, wouldn’t it?
Only if that copy of the OS was copied in a manner that infringed on Apple's copyright. Assuming that Psystar went to an Apple retailer and legitimately bought a bunch of copies of the OS and installed each copy on a separate computer then this is not the case.
But the license agreement, to a the purchaser must agree to use the product, and which is spelled out in advance of purchase, specifically says the install must be on a “Apple-labeled” machine. If the purchaser finds this to be an unacceptable restriction, his remedy is to not purchase the software.
However, I do agree that if the purchaser wants to use the disk as an expensive beer coaster, that should be OK.
In your Post #8, did you mean to say “unauthorized” or “illegal”?
“The doctrine of first sale should, in a good world, trump any of Apple’s claims.
“
Maybe not. That software license they bought has stipulations you must agree to before using it. That said, I also think most software licenses are bogus as they are written because they inside the package, make claims they are not entitled, and restrict usage beyond what I would consider reasonable.
Essentially though, I believe the doctrine of first sale should trump the EULA in this case.
You said — Funny how Apple is allowed to get away with the kind of anti-competitive behavior that Microsoft could only dream of doing itself.
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Funny how Apple could be anti-competitive with less than 10% of the market... LOL...
Ring me up again when the number gets up to 90%.... :-)
You said — I never bought a copy of a Mac OS, but I would bet you dollars to donuts that the restrictions on the purchaser are spelled out in abundantly clear language.
—
I have bought it — but — I haven’t ever bothered reading it, even just one time, in over 25 years... LOL...
Who cares..., I use the Apple machines...
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