Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion through App Store from bootleg version of Lion?

[TheBoothGuy1]

Hi there everyone.
Just bought a MacBook Pro from a friend who has OS X Lion as the current OS. I asked him why he hadn't updated to OS X Mountain Lion yet. He said he had no reason to make the switch. I, on the other hand, am interested in trying the new Logic Pro X, which requires Mountain Lion to run. I mentioned in passing that I would probably fork up the $20 to upgrade through App Store. He said to see if that was possible. He disclosed to me that he had updated from OS X Snow Leopard to Lion 'illegally', and wasn't sure if updating further through App Store would create any problems, i.e. detection of a pirated current OS. Anyone know anything about this?
Please help. Thanks

 

[pmau]

Since OSX has been made available in the App Store, there has never been an "upgrade" price. You can either buy it or not.

There has been a period where recently purchased Mac's could get the update for free after verifying their date of purchase with Apple.

But the only thing needed to buy a copy is your ability to access the AppStore with your own Apple-ID and password. Because you personally buy it, it's associated with your account, not with your hardware.

If you sell your Mac, you still own the OS. So in theory, you should delete your Mac before selling and make the buyer obtain his/her own legal copy of the OS.

 

[TheBoothGuy1]

Since OSX has been made available in the App Store, there has never been an "upgrade" price. You can either buy it or not.

There has been a period where recently purchased Mac's could get the update for free after verifying their date of purchase with Apple.

But the only thing needed to buy a copy is your ability to access the AppStore with your own Apple-ID and password. Because you personally buy it, it's associated with your account, not with your hardware.

If you sell your Mac, you still own the OS. So in theory, you should delete your Mac before selling and make the buyer obtain his/her own legal copy of the OS.

Thanks for the reply. But I suppose I worded my question a little wrong, or at least not in it's entirety. I have no issues with the Apple-ID part. I've purchased a couple small apps with my new Apple-ID. So I figure that's how I'll acquire Mountain Lion. But my concern is, though it isn't necessarily "upgrading" from Lion to Mountain Lion, will there still be any issue that you know of during installation where it would detect that I am attempting to install Mountain Lion from a system that has a pirated OS of Lion? Will the installation process at any point be like "Woah, bro... It seems that your computer is currently on a pirated version of Lion. Get back to a legal OS first, then purchase Lion through the App Store, THEN purchase Mountain Lion through App Store, you dirty little cheater!!!"
Hahaha. Hope my logic makes some sense... Thoughts?

 

[pmau]

No, there's no validation.

The copy you install is not validated against your Apple ID.
You can also skip registering your Mac.
You are not obligated to provide any information during installation.
To be sure, just install it without being connected to the net.

The recovery feature is a different issue. When you use Internet Recovery on newer MacBooks, you have to enter your Apple ID and the whole OS will be downloaded from the internet.

You have to purchase OSX with that Apple ID to use Internet Recovery.