I wasn't going to respond to any more posts here, but one more. First, let me say that I have been just as guilty about getting this thread into a heated argument, so want to apologize and give a much more reasoned and polite response. So here goes.
So where is the line then? Isn't your entire argument here about how it's so BAD to buy second-hand, machine-specific disks and use them on a machine they weren't intended for?
I don't know. I hadn't really thought of a "line". But I'm not saying it's bad to buy the disks. If you want them, then by all means, buy them. The point Scott and I have been trying to get across is the misrepresentation of OWC and others selling them as retail disks. They are not. Not only is it false advertising, but while many customers get lucky and have no obvious problems with them, there have also got to be just as many who stuck with disks that don't work. If OWC operates on the same rules as Best Buy, CompUSA and any other computer store, then the only thing they'll give you on an open software item is exact replacement disks. Hardly useful when the disks aren't physically bad, what was sold to the user is. What's their recourse then? Pretty much only leaves eBay so they can dump their problem on someone else.
I think maybe you're one of those big spenders on new technology who's upset because you always pay full price.
Nope. If it bothered me, I wouldn't consider buying it in the first place. Regardless of that, that's how things work. People come up with a new and/or better way of doing something. The public decides whether or not that new thing is worth their hard earned income. Without the imagination of those who come up with new and better ways to do things,
and those willing to invest in and use them, civilization would come to a complete standstill. Nothing would ever change and the world would always look exactly as it does now. Carry that idea all the way back to the stone ages and we would indeed still be living in caves. It's the ones willing to invent and use new ideas and products that drives the human race forward. Until the day of "Star Trek" arrives, where you simply contribute your knowledge to the good of humanity since no income is needed (everything is free to everyone), then those who create what others use not just need, but deserve to be paid for what they do.
But that's monopoly capitalism, not free market capitalism.
It can certainly look that way, but no one is making anyone buy an Apple computer, as if it were the only product of its type available. There's all kinds of other choices out there. You can buy a standard Windows type platform with Windows as the OS. You can buy or build the same type of machine and install Linux or other form of Unix on it. No one is forced to buy Apple as a monopolistic choice. Other choices exist and all are free to buy which one they want.
If Apple decides to employ activation methodology on their software, so be it. There are software programs being developed, some of it to be offered for free, that will allow one to defeat that feature.
Such software would have to mimic a complete web site and company server. You can't simply bypass these functions. Windows XP, Photoshop CS2 and Quark XPress all contact the developer directly to confirm that there is only one use (2 for XPress) of the serial number submitted. No legal confirmation, no activation. The product will expire to a demo or non working install in whatever time specified. Getting around that would be far more difficult than just bypassing a key disk or other simpler form of confirmation. No Internet connection? No help. Then you have to call the appropriate company to get the software activated. How many people with a known illegal copy are going to do that? May as well call the police on yourself at the same time.
(cont.)
