OS 10.6 $29 Disk & Appropriate Usage

Here's an Apple press release excerpt from earlier this week (August 24, 2009) regarding Snow Leopard:

The Snow Leopard single user license will be available for a suggested retail price of $29 (US) and the Snow Leopard Family Pack, a single household, five-user license, will be available for a suggested price of $49 (US). For Tiger® users with an Intel-based Mac®, the Mac Box Set includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife® ’09 and iWork® ’09 and will be available for a suggested price of $169 (US) and a Family Pack is available for a suggested price of $229 (US).

Here is the complete document:

Apple to Ship Mac OS X Snow Leopard on August 28

Here is a statement from the Snow Leopard EULA:

C. Leopard Upgrade Licenses. If you have purchased an Upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard license, then subject to the terms and conditions of this License, you are granted a limited non-exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer as long as that computer has a properly licensed copy of Mac OS X Leopard already installed on it.

And a link to the full document:

http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosx106.pdf

There is no mention of a "Tiger" 10.4 "upgrade license".


There has been some discussion regarding the legality or appropriateness of using the $29 dollar 10.6 disk as an upgrade path for OS 10.4 users.

I read many review articles this week regarding the 10.6 release, and one of the comments I remember reading was how this is the first time in the naming scheme of OS X releases that the version name has been repeated.

You know all of the "cat" names: 10.0 Cheetah, 10.1 Puma, 10.2 Jaguar, 10.3 Panther, 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, and 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Given the partial name repeat & the low price of $29 (where previous releases OS 10.0 through 10.5 were in the $99 - $129 range)...that would or could suggest a closer link between Leopard & Snow Leopard.

This could even be interpreted as a possible precedent to support the fact that the $29 dollar 10.6 disk was an upgrade only option for 10.5 Leopard users and NOT an upgrade path for 10.4 user's.

A possible basis (if someone at Apple chose to pursue it) to say that 10.4 "Tiger" users using the 10.6 $29 dollar disk to upgrade their computers, could be doing more than violating Apple's EULA.

This is just a theory....something to think about,

- Nick

No question if Tiger users wish to use the $29.00 upgrade priced disk to obtain and install a full version of Snow Leopard that they can. As others have pointed out, violating the EULA is not against the law. Nothing illegal about it.

Are the Apple police going to knock on your door at 3:00 AM and ask to see your copy of Leopard? Will you be dragged off to Apple Land never to be seen again? No. Is Apple going to sue you in court for violation of their EULA? Probably not.

It's a matter of ethics. Let your conscience be your guide.

Regards.

:sigh: We've covered this in at least two other topics already. Yes, we know the $29 disc was supposed to be for Leopard users only. Yes, we know that it works on machines with Tiger.

There is no legal argument here. EULAs are not binding legal contracts. No court has ruled in such a way. If Apple were to pursue this in court, the same thing would happen. You simply lose your warranty, you don't get fined or go to jail.