Torrent Lawsuit

[Mephisto]

I realize this is somewhat old news but since it just resurfaced I am curious as to what the astute readers here make of this lawsuit. I must confess I am of mixed feelings on it. On the one hand Apple needs to protect their interests and make a point that things like torrenting the private betas is not allowed. On the other what does Apple have to gain by continuing the lawsuit?

The young gentleman in question exercised very poor judgment in torrenting the beta. I have a hard time understanding how someone bright enough to get into med school could not know that a program that requires membership in the ADC, a seed, and an NDA could not be distributed freely. Even if you do not read the NDA logic should have told him this.

I am a programmer by trade and I feel very strongly about illegal copying of software (and music, movies, etc... ). Further in all honestly I believe that the seed creator knew what he was doing was wrong though he probably thought it harmless. But even with this in consideration I don't see the point in Apple continuing the lawsuit and suing him. There simply is nothing to gain morally, politically, or financially.

As a counterpoint though, most traders in illegal software are 15 to 20 something students or otherwise not able to afford a lawsuit against them. 30 something business owners who need software will buy it, not pirate a copy off a torrent. Should the studient be let off the hook for doing something they knew, or should have known, was not legal just because they can not afford the consequences of their actions?

Again I do not think continuing the lawsuit is right, but I do not see how Apple's actions are wrong either. Dropping the lawsuit seems to be the decent thig to do but what about when it happens again?

[texanpenguin]

The main reason for following through with the suit is to set an example.

It makes it perfectly clear that if you seed off things that aren't yours to seed (or which you only have access to through an NDA), and those things are Apple products, expect to be punished to the full extent of the law.

It's not going to work if people know Apple has an ad-hoc policy against suing the poor.

The guy can afford ADC membership :P

[Viro]

The guy didn't have a proper ADC membership. He has the student membership (which I have) that is free. You don't get the seeds with the student membership. He got the seed from someone else.

I fully agree with Apple in taking action against this person. I don't think Apple specifically targeted a poor university student, but it just so happens that the person who seeded that particular build of Tiger was a student.

A lot of people on the net seem to be up in arms about Apple suing a 'customer' for distributing beta copies of the software. What most people tend to forget is that beta software and release candidates in particular can and do end up as release builds. A beta is released to iron out bugs. What happens if a version that is released has practically no showstopper bugs and is deemed production worthy? That beta probably then recompiled with optimizations, less debug info and made into a release. If that beta was widely circulated, it would be no different from circulating the final build (albeit with less optimizations and more debug info build in).

This is all conjecture on my part and I admit the process I've just outlined tends to hold for release candidates and not beta builds, but then there's nothing to stop Apple from doing just that.

[fryke]

Hmm... Closing this thread. We don't talk 'General' here. We also don't talk about illegal ways of getting Tiger builds. Or Apple's defensive means against illegally getting Tiger builds. Nor do we do the anti-anti-anti-getting-Tiger-illegally-talk. If you want to talk about Apple's lawsuits, go to Apple News, Rumours & General, please.