Panther anti-piracy - where is it?

Status
Not open for further replies.
habilis

habilis

Ministry of Re-Education
I've already bought Panther but I was on ebay this afternoon and for the heck of it I wanted to see how much people are getting for it. The odd thing is that a few of the descriptions said "Box opened" and these copies were selling for cheaper. I figure these people have already installed.

Is there any anti-piracy in Panther at all. I bought mine and it never asked for a serial number. So, besides the end user agreement, what's to stop me if I decided to make copies of all the Panther install disks and then sell the original in the box?

Windows XP holds a database of installed copies with the serial number, it won't allow you to install XP if it's already been entered for another machine. It's pretty simple and effective.

The other thing I was wondering, is there spyware in Panther that sends out hardware profiles with the install?

This isn't a thread on how to pirate Panther, I was just suprised that there was no serial number and no apparent anti-piracy measures whatsoever. What could be behind it.
 
No, there's nothing in it that stops you from installing it more times than you are allowed. Apple expects people to follow the licenses, and some do, some don't.

I welcome this with open arms because I hate "activating" software. If people are going to pirate it, that's not going to stop them, so why bother legitimate users with all that BS?
 
BTW, you can install windoze on any computer whatsoever, but it is really hard to install Panther on somethign else than an Apple Macintosh ... so if you already have a Mac, you're already a paying customer anyway. Apple is a harware vendor, M$ a software developer. Apple makes you pay a lot for their machines (which are worth the price IMHO) and M$ makes you pay a lot for their OS (which is not worth the price IMHO). Small profit on OS X methinks, they use the OS to get you hooked on the machine, just like iTunes entices you to the iPod.
 
Just agreeing with everyone else on this thread -- Panther has absolutely no spyware, phoning home capabilities or anti-piracy mechanisms whatsoever. No serial number, no internet connection needed to install, no nothing.

You can install Panther on as many machines as you would like without it complaining that it's being run on more than one machine, but it's blatantly illegal and in violation of the licensing agreement you agreed to when you installed it.
 
So if I wanted to make a legal installment of panther on more then one Mac I have to buy more then one copy?
 
At the right of this page ( http://www.apple.com/macosx/ ) they show you that you can either buy a single-computer liscence for $129, or a five-computer liscence for $199 (called a family pack). You could just get the family pack if you want to legally install it on 5 macs
 
Ah! Thank you again adambyte. You'll have to excuse my ignorance. I'm new to Computers all together you see. Well not so much to as in using them but new as in understand them and how their world works.
 
Well, welcome to the wonderful world of computers. you'll spend much more time behind the keyboard than you probably should. ;) lol
 
Yeah, you can install Panther as many times as you want, Reality, but it's only legal for the first computer. If you buy the 5-pack, you can only install it on up to 5 computers you own or operate—legally, that is.
 
Yea, then again, the moral debate edges on... Apple used to give their OSes out for free... why should we have to pay for them now? I split the cost of panther with my 8 room mates and now were all running it. I paid enough for my computer. I bought 10.1 and 10.2 no way in hell was I going to pay that much again.
 
Well, Microsoft used to give away Excel to students so they would get used to using it and then buy it when they were done school.

Apple has spent countless hours working on Panther. Why shouldn't you pay them for it? Why should you get that for free, or a measly $16.

If you have 8 room mates, it sounds like you are in college/university. You could have gotten a significant student discount and support Apple for all the work they have done.
 
I don't mean to take away from what has been said, but this is way off topic.. I don't even know 8 people that have macs ('ceptin for you all), let alone live with them. What a sweet setup that could be.
 
During the Paris Apple Expo 2003, at the end of a Panther conferece:

Myself (Q) "Is Panther protected by any means against piracy ?"
Apple French director (A) "No, Apple is trusting its userbase. No serial, no info sent over the Web at install".

Pretty clear, hm ?
 
I guess true Apple fans can go with that. I mean after reading that I, personally, feel closer to the company. Now I want to buy everything they can offer for any price! :)
 
The parts of this puzzle are now make perfect sense to me.

Originally I couldn't figure out why Apple wouldn't at least put a simple 5-digit authentication code in Panther to at minimum prevent the moms and dads and non-computer savvy people from copying it around. But after remembering that Apple is a hardware company above all else that generates close to 90% of its revenue purely from new macs and other hardware it all fell into place:

Each new OS, each new generation of software demands more and more from the CPU. This in particular is noticed on the slower and older iMacs, G4's, iBooks, etc. So even if Apple gave it's software away for free, it would still generate morre money and new hardware sales because the software can't be properly run on older or slower machines, therefor forcing the consumer to go out and buy a new Mac to properly run it.

In Apple's case, the end result of software pirating is boosts in Mac sales which are almost 2 times the price of PC's.

Not bad Apple. (;
 
cogito said:
Yea, then again, the moral debate edges on... Apple used to give their OSes out for free... why should we have to pay for them now? I split the cost of panther with my 8 room mates and now were all running it. I paid enough for my computer. I bought 10.1 and 10.2 no way in hell was I going to pay that much again.
Click to expand...

I don't remember a time when Apple gave away their software for free, and I've been around since System 1.0. The computers came with the system software, but that's not the same as giving it away for free -- you couldn't just walk into any store and walk out with Apple's System Software without paying for it. Sure, you can get up to System 7.6.1 NOW for FREE, on Apple's FTP servers, simply because the software is old, outdated, and wouldn't run on any current machine. When certain software becomes EOL and unsupported, usually they'll start giving it away for free.

So, essentially what you're saying is that since you just HAVE to be running the latest system software, and since you feel that one of the lowest priced OSs out there is STILL too high priced for you, that you'd resort to stealing because you simply have to have it?

Your argument(s) that you've already paid a lot of money for a computer and already paid a lot of money for two OSs justifies you getting the newest system software for a drastically reduced rate in an illegal fasion would not hold up anywhere. You simply can't justify stealing something that isn't a necessity simply because you want it and don't want to pay the full price, which, in more than one person's opinion, is a VERY fair price for what you get.

I'm a college student as well, and if I want something, hell, I save up for it. I forego that six-pack on Friday night and save myself $6. I'll bum a ride to school and save myself a few bucks on gas money. I don't put that extra quarter in the machine when my 3 lives are done and the video game is nagging me with that 10-second countdown to continue. Plus, Christmas is right around the corner... but hey, who wants to ask for something for Christmas when they can just steal it and then ask for something else? $129 is EASY to save up in a matter of a week, and if you live ANYwhere near an urban or semi urban place in the United States, the going rate for mowing someone's lawn is about $30. Do two lawns on Saturday, two on Sunday and you're within a few bucks of having Panther, plus supporting a company that's doing things the right way.

I don't mean to get all high and mighty here, but it's ridiculous how people complain about the draconian security measures that software companies employ, yet they still steal the programs that don't employ those measures -- why do you think most companies employed those security measures in the first place? Probably to stop people from buying one copy of a program and giving it away to 7 other people.
 
Getting late, time to close this before it gets too far out of hand. Original question has been satisfied.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top