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Lion Piracy

roadbloc

roadbloc

macrumors G3
Original poster
Aug 24, 2009
8,784
215
UK
May as well throw this one out there.

Do you think that Apple are removing/making it challenging to pirate Lion unlike the previous Mac OS X's which were easily available off torrent sites without the use or need of keygens or cracks, by making it an App Store download only?

GO!
 
No. They changed the install to make it easier, nothing more. And they certainly didn't make it harder to pirate Lion. If anything, it's easier, since you don't have to create a disk image from the disk, you just have to extract it from the installer. No need for keygens or cracks either--there is no DRM.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Apple is always looking for ways to reduce piracy.
Take Jailbreaking your phone, there will always be smart people who find away around the limits of the Apple store distribution method.
My opinion is as long as I pay for my copy Apple wins even if it is just a little. I support the companies I admire.
 
Shouldn't stop hackers from uploading it. In the end, even this kind of installer is just a file so if you get your hands on it, you can share it. The price and distribution method are good for fighting against piracy though as nobody should torrent it at that price.
 
Hellhammer said:
Shouldn't stop hackers from uploading it. In the end, even this kind of installer is just a file so if you get your hands on it, you can share it. The price and distribution method are good for fighting against piracy though as nobody should torrent it at that price.
Click to expand...

Alas, when people pirate $1 phone apps...
 
Nermal said:
Alas, when people pirate $1 phone apps...
Click to expand...

People like that deserved to be slapped.

The one thing I think most casual pirates are uncomfortable pirating are operating systems. I imagine it will remain very limited, except for in the hackintosh community.
 
Nermal said:
Alas, when people pirate $1 phone apps...
Click to expand...

I didn't it will stop piracy but the barrier to torrent it is much higher when the price is so low. If Lion had been 129$, I'm sure I would have torrented it. There is nothing so significant to make it worth that much. Now that it's 29$, I didn't even have to think about torrenting.
 
I think the price shows two things. Firstly, it is very low so I'm very happy to buy it without feeling ripped off, some others may share that view. Secondly, at that price Apple don't seem to care that much, they probably want more people buying Mac and using their Mac-App store. Even if they don't lock Mac down to the app store they will still make lots of money off it.

Apple seems to be changing the approach. Look at the iTunes match thing, basically they are making an annual fee out of piracy.
 
Apple has always been about selling their computer systems, not so much about making money from their operating system upgrades.

They are somewhat concerned about people putting their MacOSX on non-Apple hardware as seen with Psystar.

If Lion had been 129$, I'm sure I would have torrented it. There is nothing so significant to make it worth that much. Now that it's 29$, I didn't even have to think about torrenting.
Click to expand...

If that were such the case, why are you not using Linux? Zero cost. Obviously it must have enough worth for you to torrent it. People will often say anything to justify what they are doing.

The planning and complexity it takes to create an operating system of this caliber would far exceed the $29.00 price point. but as I said before, its to sell its computer systems, the lower price just makes it look more attractive.
 
Last edited:
roadbloc said:
May as well throw this one out there.

Do you think that Apple are removing/making it challenging to pirate Lion unlike the previous Mac OS X's which were easily available off torrent sites without the use or need of keygens or cracks, by making it an App Store download only?

GO!
Click to expand...

I'm thinking this is a move against the hackintosh community, not one they set out to do, but as a fringe benefit. Its harder (not impossible) to now upgrade a hackintosh.
 
linuxcooldude said:
If that were such the case, why are you not using Linux?
Click to expand...
Perhaps he likes Macs, Mac OS X etc. but doesn't see the "improvements" in Lion as being worth $129?

Whatever the price personally I would pay for the upgrade. I certainly wouldn't want a pirated copy that could be infected.
 
The more people use Lion, the more people use Macs, the more people use the App Store, the more money everyone makes. Apple dropped the price of OS X recently to $30, which means that they are not charging as much as it's worth anyway, because they want people to use it instead of wanting to earn back all their money by making people pay for the OS (like Microsoft).

That doesn't mean pirating is good or anything, but I think it's not a big deal when it comes to OS X. If you're a Mac user, you buys Apple products regularly anyway.
 
maflynn said:
I'm thinking this is a move against the hackintosh community, not one they set out to do, but as a fringe benefit. Its harder (not impossible) to now upgrade a hackintosh.
Click to expand...

It's harder to buy a copy (you need a preexisting hackintosh or real mac) but the actual upgrade is no more difficult than before.)
 
mdgm said:
Perhaps he likes Macs, Mac OS X etc. but doesn't see the "improvements" in Lion as being worth $129?

Whatever the price personally I would pay for the upgrade. I certainly wouldn't want a pirated copy that could be infected.
Click to expand...

Then he could stay with Snow Leopard.
 
baryon said:
The more people use Lion, the more people use Macs, the more people use the App Store, the more money everyone makes. Apple dropped the price of OS X recently to $30, which means that they are not charging as much as it's worth anyway, because they want people to use it instead of wanting to earn back all their money by making people pay for the OS (like Microsoft).

That doesn't mean pirating is good or anything, but I think it's not a big deal when it comes to OS X. If you're a Mac user, you buys Apple products regularly anyway.
Click to expand...

I heard that a developer only makes 25% of the price of a program after all of the other fees are taken out. So if that's true, all Apple did was remove the 75% overheard and is passing the savings along to the consumer. $30*4 = $120

For a total loss, per sale, of 9/4 or $2.25
 
I dont know how anyone would feel safe installing a pirated OS, I mean anyone can dump anything in there or your whole system could crash with a bad pirated copy or some missing crucial file..... Any sort of pirating is bad but pirating your whole OS is stupid and risky as well.
 
bigjnyc said:
I dont know how anyone would feel safe installing a pirated OS, I mean anyone can dump anything in there or your whole system could crash with a bad pirated copy or some missing crucial file..... Any sort of pirating is bad but pirating your whole OS is stupid and risky as well.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you! Why even bother taking such a risk when it's so cheap anyway? I had an email from Apple telling me the price in GBP Sterling - £20.99 - practically nothing. Especially when you consider those 250 new features and 3000 API's.
 
bigjnyc said:
I dont know how anyone would feel safe installing a pirated OS, I mean anyone can dump anything in there or your whole system could crash with a bad pirated copy or some missing crucial file..... Any sort of pirating is bad but pirating your whole OS is stupid and risky as well.
Click to expand...

Not so true with OS X, the pirated copies via torrents are just clones of the retail DVD. They install exactly the same as you would with a purchased copy. And since OS X doesnt require a serial, theres no need to be paranoid about it either.
 
joelovesapple said:
Totally agree with you! Why even bother taking such a risk when it's so cheap anyway? I had an email from Apple telling me the price in GBP Sterling - £20.99 - practically nothing. Especially when you consider those 250 new features and 3000 API's.
Click to expand...

£20.99? Wow! Snow Leopard was something like £27 as I remember (not sure)!
 
Piracy is much too easy. I don't think I have paid for an OS since 2005 and that's been Windows and Mac, all the way to Lion now.
.... jk.....it's a joke. I'm not really a pirate. The previous message was fictitious. :rolleyes:
 
It seems like I'll have to wait and see if there's a way to upgrade from Leopard to Lion without pirating in some way (unless the installer won't allow to upgrade on anything but Snow Leopard anyhow). My mom has an (2008 or 09) iMac and MacBook that she never got around to upgrading to Snow Leopard. I'm under the impression that there isn't a way to have the app store on Leopard.

…maybe if she wants to upgrade, I'll just help her with a "free" solution to SL so that she can upgrade to Lion. I'm sure that a better solution is bound to present itself within the next month(?).
 
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