Wired takes down Hackintosh video
Wired is being sued for posting a video on how to get Mac OS X on an MSI Wind, shown here.
(Credit: CNET)Update at 11:30 a.m.: It seems that Chen did not understand exactly what happened regarding his article. Updates throughout.
Wired has confirmed that Apple contacted the publisher about a blog post with step-by-step instructions on how to get Mac OS X running on a non-Apple Netbook and decided to remove the offending video.
Earlier in the day, Brian Chen, who writes for Wired's Gadget Lab blog, posted a message to Twitter spotted by Gizmodo saying "just found out Apple is suing Wired for my video tutorial on hacking Netbooks to run Mac OS X."
It turns out, however, that Apple merely contacted the Conde Nast division regarding the post in question, and after reviewing the post, Wired decided to remove the video from its site, a company representative confirmed. Chen updated his Twitter feed to that effect shortly after we contacted Wired.
The video no longer appears on Wired's site. The original article with step-by-step instructions on how to circumvent Apple's restrictions on where Mac OS X can be installed is still up as of this moment, and Wired is currently reviewing it but plans to leave it up for now, the representative said.
Apple has appeared to gently tolerate the "Hackintosh" community that sprung up after the company decided to adopt Intel's x86 processors for the Mac, so long as the project didn't advance much beyond science fair mode. But it has shown a clear interest in protecting its licensing agreements for Mac OS X this year, through its legal battle against Psystar, a clone maker selling generic desktop PCs with Mac OS X preinstalled.
In its article, Wired admitted that the practice is illegal, requiring the installation of hacked software, linking to well-known torrent site The Pirate Bay to provide a source for the software. It also offered the following disclaimer: "Disclaimer: The following process potentially violates Apple's End User License Agreement for Mac OS X. Please ensure you own a copy of Mac OS X Leopard, if you wish to follow the procedure."
An Apple representative declined to comment on the situation. Evan Hansen, editor-in-chief of Wired.com, did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment.
Updated 12:25pm - Our friends at ZDNet were able to get a hold of Hansen, who had the following to say. "We made a determination that the video...we're more comfortable taking down the video." Hansen also told ZDNet that Wired tries "to default to the most conservative position we can in terms of removing content ... but we don't want to pull content (needlessly)."
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
Same-same...
Just to be clear, you have stated in the past that you currently own and promte the use of a "Hackintosh" yourself, correct?
Copyright infringement is illegal, but so is "inducing" others to infringe copyright. This is the essence of Apple's lawsuit against Psystar. Because this is such a high profile case, Apple can't just "let it slide" when it turns up on another high profile site (Wired). So from Apple's perspective, they have no choice but to ask Wired to take it down. Otherwise they might as well not have filed their case against Psystar.
Remember, Apple didn't "go after" anyone, they just asked Wired to take down the video. (Chen's tweet said, "Update: Apple is not suing Wired over the Hackintosh tutorial. My misunderstanding.")
From Wired's perspective, they have a 'helpful tutorial video' which may be construed to be inducing people to commit copyright infringement. If they don't honor Apple's request and Apple ends up winning their lawsuit against Psystar that would put Wired in a very risky position. At that point Apple could come after Wired for something they just proved was illegal. So Wired's choice is to leave up a video that doesn't directly benefit them but does expose them to potentially expensive damages down the road, or remove the video and avoid the risk. As the article says, Wired chooses to be conservative about these things (it's a lot safer that way).
It's not really about who's a good guy or a bad guy or a lovable hacker. The situation never could have played out any other way these days.
honestly, if apple wants to lock down their software then maybe they should go back to their obsolete hardware.
its not illegal to tell people how to hack macintosh. Instructional videos are protected under free speech. you can make instructional videos on how to break into a bank too, with helpful suggestions on where to buy the tools to do it. its called free speech and youre allowed to do it. you can even buy something like the anarchist cookbook on amazon. yes these instructions tell you how to do something illegal, but there is nothing illegal about giving the actual instructions. apple is wrong here and so are you.
You might want to rethink your statement about free speech. Instructional videos showing someone how to break the law are not necessarily protected free speech. Free speech does give you the right to say anything you want but it does not protect you from being prosecuted for violating the law. If you don't believe me try yelling 'fire" in a crowded theater.
The skills you need to get a hackintosh working are not those possessedby there target market.
Or in other words, your average joe would be installing osx on a pc, get stuck , say f*** it and drive to the apple store.
Now what happens when you have a well know news source, thats going to profit( you know that video got alot of hits) by making it easy to get a hackintosh working, then you have a problem.
Same thing with pyhstar, pre-build hackintoshes, with some tech support, thats scary for apple.
But some nerds talking about what .kext or driver to install to enable full sata support, or how to edit grub to allow booting of linux and osx(im using nerd talk here, what normal people don't care about), isn't rly that bad, in fact since most hackintoshes are still messed up the hacker is FAR more likely to buy a mac as there next computer.
I will probably buy a mac when they change there warrenty policies ; "On the Macbook the hard drive is not a user servicable part , installing it will void the warrenty"(some guy on apple sell u crap chat.)
Oh well, we'll all be using some flavor of Unix very soon. Who will we sue then?
I don't think anybody is really paying attention anymore, they just want to rant, but thanks for the update.
Not that I have any problem with Hackintoshes. I spent last weekend installing osx86 on my hp pavilion laptop. Still though, I don't think it was appropriate for Wired to publish the tutorial. I figured Apple would get pissed like this.
- by Maarek Stele January 14, 2009 12:25 PM PST
- Why would I ruin a PC by putting a MAC OS on it?
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- by Penguinisto January 14, 2009 12:56 PM PST
- You have zero clues, do you?
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- by OctaPC January 14, 2009 12:56 PM PST
- True. You can ruin it better by putting viruses and botware on it.
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- by dude7895 January 14, 2009 1:05 PM PST
- @Penguinisto
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- by unknown unknown January 14, 2009 1:31 PM PST
- @dude7895 It's marketing. Would you want to buy from company who didn't think there product was superior?
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- by Vegaman_Dan January 14, 2009 2:39 PM PST
- Penguinisto wrote:
- Like this
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- by pithenumber January 14, 2009 3:28 PM PST
- @Octa
- Like this
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- by Penguinisto January 14, 2009 5:02 PM PST
- @Dan and dude7895:
- Like this
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(32 Comments)If you're a mac user than you already throw your money away on Out Dated hardware.
(hint: Macs nowadays run the same hardware as PCs...)
Are you comparing anything in the second sentence? But I think I would agree. Even though Macs hold their value well, it is better not to throw your money on outdated hardware, and instead for a few hundred more buy a new computer from the Apple store.
Then why does Apple insist on spreading the ideas that their computers are superior to PCs? ;)
Whether it actual is, is up to the person using it. I personally don't care all that much for Mac OS.
"(hint: Macs nowadays run the same hardware as PCs...) "
And yet they cost 2x-3x the price. Interesting. Thanks for pointing that out.
we don't always have a few hundred
a free anti virus does the trick and bloatware is easy to remove
...because
1) they are well-built (and not grey-market or under-specced parts, as Dell and HP are both notorious for when it comes to consumer machines). Their longevity and superior resale value more than extol this fact.
2) if you compared spec-for-spec a Dell and a Mac (or an HP and a Mac), you end up paying the same prices (and often more for the non-Mac machine).
HTH,
/P