Apple Says Booting OS X Makes an Unauthorized Copy

recoiledsnake writes "Groklaw has an extensive look at the latest developments in the Psystar vs. Apple story. There's a nice picture illustrating the accusation by Apple that Psystar makes three unauthorized copies of OS X. The most interesting, however, is the last copy. From Apple's brief: 'Finally, every time Psystar turns on any of the Psystar computers running Mac OS X, which it does before shipping each computer, Psystar necessarily makes a separate modified copy of Mac OS X in Random Access Memory, or RAM. This is the third unlawful copy.' Psystar's response: 'Copying a computer program into RAM as a result of installing and running that program is precisely the copying that Section 117 provides does not constitute copyright infringement for an owner of a computer program. As the Ninth Circuit explained, permitting copies like this was Section 117's purpose.' Is Apple seriously arguing that installing a third party program and booting OS X results in copyright infringement due to making a derivative work and an unauthorized copy?"

Comments

Re:Unauthorized

[CrackedButter]

Apple Users agreed not to do it when they clicked 'Okay' on the EULA. So they don't have permission no.

Re:Unauthorized

[jimicus]

I really do wish people making such bold assertions would do a little research to back them up.

If Wikipedia is to be believed, EULAs may (at least in the US in some circumstances) be perfectly enforceable, so it's nowhere near as clear-cut as you make out.