How does Licence work for OSX?

[lurk]

Yes, there is no license check, it is just a piece of paper with NO activation code typed on it.

[cfr]

It is also perfectly legal to reinstall OS X on your computer (provided you haven't installed it on other computers etc. etc.). The reason you get OS X install disks as well as a pre-installed version is to enable you to reinstall the OS if you need to. You're still using the OS on a single computer and it is still the computer it was intended for.

If you want to update the OS and it is a major upgrade (e.g. from Panther to Tiger) then you need a new licence.

- cfr

[Sunnz]

So how bad is the pirating going on for Macs? Is it as bad as Windows?? Or do Mac people usually are willing to pay for OSX?

[Satcomer]

Originally Posted by Sunnz

Is it as bad as Windows?? Or do Mac people usually are willing to pay for OSX?

Hopefully most Mac users will pay for OS X and the multi Family Pack. Steve Jobs calls it Karma. Some writers have gone far enough to say Mac users tend to smarter and better educated, I don't know about this. I do know the Macintosh community is more helpful than anything in the Windows camp. pirating has been thankfully kept at a minimum in the Mac community.

[oceanicitl]

I wonder why Sunnz is so interested in pirating...

[fryke]

I'm not going to close the thread so far, but be aware that this thread is on the verge of disappearing. There's no real reason to discuss this, I think. How the heck should any of us know what percentage of OS X out there is pirated? We don't. Of _course_ it happens, just like with any other software, but we can't know the percentage. One _important_ difference is that there's no real _need_ to pirate. You _get_ your license with the Mac. Anything else is uprade pricing, and I don't think 129 USD for a single license is too much. Of course you have to time your purchases a little. We know that Leopard will be out in Spring of 2007, so I probably wouldn't buy a new Mac in January if you can hold out 'til Leopard arrives.

[Sunnz]

I just find it interesting that almost every home Windows user uses exclusively pirated software, not just Windows but everything else; but it seems very different on the Mac. So I am thinking along the lines with, if you can afford a Mac, maybe it implies that you can afford software.

[fryke]

That's merely an assumption. I know quite a few PC users who actually buy their software licenses. Plus: Macs are not _really_ more expensive. (I don't think we can argue for years that Macs - other than the PowerMacs and Mac Pros - are just as cheap as PCs and then, when the subject's a different one, suddenly call Mac users inherently wealthy. You could also argue that since the Mac's more expensive, you'd want to spend less on the software side. Without actual numbers, this is all just a guessing-game. So the question still rises: What should this thread bring to light? You won't get any answers like "H3y d00d! Grow up! Me downloaz warez on some.site.net for da MAC!" - first because we're not that kind of community and second because I'd remove the thread the instant it would turn that way.

_My_ feeling is: There's pirating users on every side of the pond. And there are legal users on every side of the pond. Software piracy is a fact the industry lives with. There are several means to face it for software makers. The *BEST* I've ever heard of a software maker was Kai Krause (from KPT effects etc.) who famously did the following:

Standing before a crowd at a Macintosh event, he asked the people how many of them were using PowerGOO (a then famous lil software). Almost all hands were up. Then he asked how many had actually bought the software. The crowd laughed and many hands went down. Smiling Kai Krause said, that he thought this was fine with him. He loved that his software was so popular, he was glad that he sold enough copies of it and said: "However, if you actually *use* the software and don't just play with it for a while, even more so if you even make *money* with the creative software you are using: Please pay the developers."

(I've quoted myself here from an older thread. I'm not sure how _exact_ I'm telling Kai's story.)