Bought Lion, not in purchased history

From what I've read, if Lion is already factory installed, yes it is only for that machine and you need to buy it for any others.

By the way, your question prompted me to re-read the 10.7 SLA and they definitely treat a pre-installed OS differently than a purchased one: if it's preinstalled, you can sell your Mac with it installed; if you buy it at MAS, you must remove it from your Mac before the sale and reinstall the original system. Now that's different.

Here are some excerpts:

2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.

A. Standard and Preinstalled Apple Software License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License,unless you obtained the Apple Software from the Mac App Store or under a volume license, maintenance orother written agreement from Apple, you are granted a limited, non-exclusive license to install, use and runone (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer at any one time. For example, thesestandard single-copy license terms apply to you if you obtained the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware.

B. License from Mac App Store. If you obtained a license for the Apple Software from the Mac App Store,then subject to the terms and conditions of this License and as permitted by the Mac App Store Usage Rulesset forth in the App Store Terms and Conditions (http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/ww/) (“Usage Rules”), youare granted a limited, non-transferable, non-exclusive license:

ℹ to download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the AppleSoftware directly on each Apple-branded computer running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Mac OS XSnow Leopard Server (“Mac Computer”) that you own or control;

and:

3. Transfer.

A. If you obtained the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware, you may make a one-timepermanent transfer of all of your license rights to the Apple Software (in its original form as provided byApple) to another party, provided that: ℹ the Apple Software is transferred together with your Apple-brandedhardware; (ii) the transfer must include all of the Apple Software, including all its component parts, printedmaterials and this License; (iii) you do not retain any copies of the Apple Software, full or partial, includingcopies stored on a computer or other storage device; and (iv) the party receiving the Apple Software readsand agrees to accept the terms and conditions of this License. For purposes of this License, if Appleprovides an update (e.g., version 10.7 to 10.7.1) to the Apple Software, the update is considered part of theApple Software and may not be transferred separately from the pre-update version of the Apple Software.

B. If you obtained your license to the Apple Software from the Mac App Store, it is not transferable. If yousell your Apple-branded hardware to a third party, you must remove the Apple Software from the Apple-branded hardware before doing so, and you may restore your system to the version of the Apple operatingsystem software that originally came with your Apple hardware (the “Original Apple OS”) and permanentlytransfer the Original Apple OS together with your Apple hardware, provided that: ℹ the transfer must includeall of the Original Apple OS, including all its component parts, printed materials and its license; (ii) you do notretain any copies of the Original Apple OS, full or partial, including copies stored on a computer or otherstorage device; and (iii) the party receiving the Original Apple OS reads and agrees to accept the terms andconditions of the Original Apple OS license.

Here is the link to the download page - just click on OS X Lion:

http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/

This will completely kill the legal resale market for Apple computers. Very, very few people will do this, not because they want to violate the license, but because they won't understand the requirement. Even for those who do understand, it will be too much effort. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.

You've got a point there - hadn't even thought of that. Usually, when selling a computer, having the "latest" OS is a big selling point..... interesting.

And for the OP:

Frankly, I don't know - have not delved into that at all. The SLA is several pages long - you might want to read all of it to see if that is mentioned or not. I believe I read that you can't run SL on a virtual machine (could be wrong though).

Section 2.B.(iii): [You are allowed] to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already

running the Apple Software.

This is the section regarding Mac App Store purchases - which means as the license currently reads you are not allowed to virtualize a preinstalled version of Lion. Only Apple can say if this is their intent or whether they will modify this in the future, either by changing the license or by allowing an additional Mac App Store license purchase to cover this case.

Of course, IANAL and this is just my reading of the license.

The problem is, unless the App Store has recently been changed, there is no way to do that unless you use a different Apple ID. Furthermore, the version on the App Store won't run on systems preinstalled with Lion. That will probably change with 10.7.[whatever the next update is], but for now it won't work.

It won't affect the resale Mac market at all.

A user who sells his Mac without erasing the hard drive is asking for trouble. A buyer who buys a used Mac and continues to use the previous user's software is asking for even more trouble. Buying a used Mac and using the existing software on it when you don't know its history, is a Very High Security Risk.

I would not trust anything that came preinstalled on any used Mac I bought. The first thing I do is erase the hard drive and reinstall everything from the original install discs, or from fresh downloads from a trusted source.

That's what every buyer of a used Mac should do. Anything else is a very bad idea.

Should have paid attention to the thread subject 🙂 If Lion isn't showing up in your purchase history you should be able to buy a copy for your Mini (and any other Snow Leopard systems you have).

I agree with you - I'd definitely erase the hard drive and reinstall; however, this brings up another interesting scenario:

I buy a Mac with Lion installed (legally) - how can I wipe/reinstall that with my user ID from MAS? There would be no record of Lion there since it came preinstalled. At least I'd assume it would have to be from MAS since there is no install media.

i have macbook pro with Lion "new computer" after update Lion wont appear in the purchase history and i dont know why???? i make a usb boot disk just in case !!!!

Your machine came with Lion preinstalled? If yes, then you won't see it in MAS because you did not purchase it there - it came with your Mac.

You can reinstall by following these instructions:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718