Re: AUGD: Legal-ish question for the list
Re: AUGD: Legal-ish question for the list
- Subject: Re: AUGD: Legal-ish question for the list
- From: David Feng <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 23:10:43 +0800
For the record, since this whole "install this software for me" or
"reinstall it for me" is full of legalese, we've had to turn away
pretty much all requests to install anything.
I do remember that user groups need to obtain permission from Apple
to distribute even OS X updates - not just to mention the meaty 10.x
updates.
However, on a private person-to-person basis, would this still be
legal? Trust me, I'm not looking for "legal loopholes" or stuff like
that; too many locals do that, and I'm not one for it.
What I'm trying to do here is to balance the interests between:
1. John Doe (in our example), the guy stuck without an OS X install
CD, who needs an install CD;
2. Apple, Inc.;
3. either me or the user group
and I want none of the three to land in legal limbo.
Here's another interesting bit of legal tangling... we're based in
China, which has its own legal system (they have a software
protection law, but IMHO it's not that strong - certainly not a real
hefty deterrent). The Apple license would be from the US.
From what I've learnt, the law of the land you're in now is supposed
to take precedence over foreign law, except for (AFAIK) in consular/
diplomatic matters. Now the thing is this - does the Apple license
from the US:
- apply in addition to Chinese law, taking precedence over Chinese law;
- apply in addition to Chinese law, but is inferior to Chinese law;
- cancel Chinese law out;
- or does Chinese law cancel the US Apple license out?
I know in the US that the Apple license applies in full.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
David
On 9 Aug 2007, at 22:50, email@hidden wrote:
We at BeiMac (the Beijing Macintosh User Group) sometimes have a few
people writing that their Mac is in trouble and that they don't have
system CDs or DVDs on hand. Software licenses are a touchy issue
here; this is in particular the case in China, where reports from
places afar cite piracy rampant at 97%.
Now - back to the question: do you think this would count as legal
software use? (See below.)
John Doe writes to us and says he needs to reinstall Tiger. He
doesn't have his CDs on hand (he left them in America while
travelling to China). I write back asking him if he can confirm that
the Mac OS software he has is under a legal license. John says yes,
and I offer to install the software for him.
If you do this you have violated the terms of your license. You
would be the guilty party. You would need permission from Apple,
Inc before you are legal.
Sorry, but this is a way for people to pirate software and have it
appear that someone else is pirating. It would be your license that
got spread all over, should this requester not be very honest with
you.
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