The Apple geniuses all have devices that boot and install from usb drives. They are much faster and more convenient than optical drives, yet when you ask about them, they say that they are "special tools for geniuses only." Nonsense. This type of proprietary attitude is what kept Apple in the toilet until they went to an open platform (i.e. Intel).
Then how would Apple make money on service/repairs if they gave these tools away for free?
Also, Apple made those tools themself(ves). They have no obligation to give or sell them to you. If you make a desk out of wood in your shed, can your neighbor come along and demand it? Or demand that you build him one, too?
It's not against the law and it breaks no EULA or DMCA laws to clone your Mac OS X Install/Restore CD/DVD to a thumb drive (or other media) and boot from it. It's basically a backup copy (or, rather, is the new "master" and the original CD/DVD becomes the "backup"). There ya go: a bootable thumb drive that has disk repair and other utilities ready to diagnose and repair computers.
I'm not sure what you mean by "open platform" and your reference to Intel. Motorola and IBM (the primary suppliers of the RISC-based PowerPC CPUs in older Macs) were just as "open" as Intel is with their CISC-based CPUs today.
My argument is that obelisk was up front and purchased both the MAC (which is nearly 2x the cost of individual *retail* parts) and the OS. How much more must he pay for the, as you say, _legal_ use of his own purchased product?
Just because you pay for Mac OS X 10.3 doesn't mean you're entitled to 10.4 for free. The same goes for 10.4 to 10.5. obelisk even said himself:
so i dint bother to go to apple store to get a official osx disk, i downloaded the "osx-leopard105.iso" 7.5gb and restore it on to a 8gb flash drive
He/She knew the proper route was to purchase the DVD at the store, quite apparently. Then he chose not to pay for it, even though he knew that was the "preferred" route. If he/she had the original disks and the problem was that the DVD drive was broken, he/she could have cloned the disks they already had instead of wasting time downloading a new disk.
My point is that it's quite clear that the poster was in violation of one or more US laws, the DMCA, and the EULA of Mac OS X in downloading the Leopard install CD/DVD. For someone who just lost their original 10.5 Install/Restore CD/DVD, this may be seen in a different light (perhaps lean more toward the "maybe acceptable" side of the scale) -- but it is quite clear that is not the case here.
As much as it would be totally awesome if the consumer had the right and the ability to say, "Hey, I feel I've already paid enough so I'm not going to pay anymore," we all know that's not how it is. Not to mention it's
you that feels he's/she's paid enough already -- obelisk said nothing of being dissatisfied with how much he/she has paid.
It's out of hand particularly in the technology arena because lawmakers don't understand technology, so the most per$ua$ive win. If I have a Chevy that breaks down and I put a Ford engine in it, I don't get men in black showing up at my door. I certainly wouldn't get chastised for it on a forum posting genuinely asking how to solve my problem. It bugs me that people not only allow it, but advocate it. Trust me, Jobs has enough money, though I'm sure he appreciates your support.
Putting a Ford engine in a Chevy is a metaphor for
installing OS X -- not obtaining it. obelisk isn't in violation of anything concerning the installing of OS X on anything -- it's the manner in which it was obtained (or the manner in which it will be used).
Just because you put a Ford engine in your Chevy doesn't mean that you can do anything with that engine you want. Can you hop on the highway and exceed the speed limit by 20 mph? Can you stick a hose in the tailpipe and blow fumes into your neighbor's air conditioning? Can you take off the muffler and run it at 7,000 rpm at 2 am in your driveway?
Job's money is Job's money. I'm sure he doesn't want me telling him when he's got enough money as much as I don't want him telling me when I've got enough money. He's not running a charity so that the world becomes a better place through the use of OS X and Macintosh computers. He's being a capitalist.
I'll be the first to admit that software piracy has been argued to death already, the world over. The fact of the matter is that it's still illegal here in the states, and it has nothing to do with how technologically advanced and educated the lawyers are. It's intellectual property -- it's Apple's idea, and they made it into OS X. You're not entitled to that for free, no matter what angle is argued. If I think of something super-cool and awesome, I have no legal nor moral obligation to tell anyone else how to do it... but I certainly can build it for them for a price, and I am entitled to do so and also to protect that knowledge. I can't stop people from tinkering away, and I can't stop someone from replicating my stuff -- but I do have a legal right to stop them from making money off of it for a period of time.
