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Apple's Safari License (Technically) Forbids Windows Installation [Updated]

Apple's Safari License (Technically) Forbids Windows Installation [Updated]

by , 8:30 PM EDT, March 26th, 2008

[Update: Apple has since modified the Windows version of the SLA for Safari for Windows to read, "This license allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on each computer owned or controlled by you." That change effectively eliminates any issues regarding installing Safari on Windows. - Editor]

Apple's license for Safari technically forbids installation on Windows computers that are not Apple-branded. The wording on the license -- which states that, "This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time" -- came to attention during the hubbub surrounding Apple's decision to make Safari for Windows available through the Apple Software Updater that comes with iTunes on Windows.

The Apple Software Updater recently began offering Windows users Safari 3.1 as a download option, a move that has raised some hackles, especially in the Mozilla camp. The Apple Software Updater reminds users that, "Use of this software is subject to the original Software License Agreement(s) that accompanied the software being updated."

That license agreement was updated on January 28th, 2008, including the above-quoted phrase, even though Apple's first released Safari for Windows in 2007, and announced the release on June 11th, 2007. The paradoxical clause was first reported by Italian site setteB.it, and gleefully passed on by The Register UK.

It's not likely, of course, that Apple will be suing Windows users who install the software. Not only is it a preposterous idea worthy of little attention, Apple would be in the unenviable position of trying to enforce the unenforceable.

As Jonathan Kramer, an attorney with the Telecom Law Firm, told the Register, this particular issue falls under the parameter of an "impossibility issue." He added, "You can't enforce a term that's impossible." You can find the quote at the very bottom of The Register's coverage.

You can read the current version of the Safari license by accessing it under the Help menu in Safari, or on Apple's Web page of Software License Agreements. Both the Windows and Mac versions of the Safari license posted there include the offending clause as of this writing.

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Guest
Subject: One less attorney on planet earth

Ha, the attorney that let that ULA boilerplate slip through will no doubtably be drawn and quartered by Jobs for the error.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Safari on Windows?

My friend has an iphone with the safari browser and it is missing the one very important element and that is a flash player. Sucks!

Close Name:Guest
Subject: This will pass...

This will pass, and people will go right on tolerating the Mac OS X license, which quite deliberately says the same thing in order to lock people into Apple hardware.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: I don't like Safari

I use multiple browsers to check my code for compatibility. After trying to use Safari for a while, I've found it to be the worst of my installed browsers. IE, Firefox and Opera are all better.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: I don't like Safari

I use multiple browsers to check my code for compatibility. After trying to use Safari for a while, I've found it to be the worst of my installed browsers. IE, Firefox and Opera are all better.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Sorry. Didn't mean to post twice.

My bad.

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3149 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject: Re: I don't like Safari

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
I use multiple browsers to check my code for compatibility. After trying to use Safari for a while, I've found it to be the worst of my installed browsers. IE, Firefox and Opera are all better.


What do you use to code your sites? Is it standards-compliant code?

Just curious.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: I can't believe it - someone read the license agreement.

Wow, someone has too much time on their hands...

Close Name:Guest
Subject: I can't believe it - someone read the license agreement.

Wow, someone has too much time on their hands...

Close Name:Guest
Subject: I can't believe it - someone read the license agreement.

Wow, someone has too much time on their hands...

Close Name:Guest
Subject: I can't believe it - someone read the license agreement.

Wow, someone has too much time on their hands...

Close Name:Sir Harry Flashman Posts: 792 Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Subject: Time Times Four

Quote
Guest wrote:
Wow, someone has too much time on their hands...
Wow, someone has too much time on their hands...
Wow, someone has too much time on their hands...
Wow, someone has too much time on their hands...


Perhaps your browser is not rendering properly and as a result you posted the same message four times.

The license was probably just cut and pasted without regards that Apple is marketing Safari to Windows users on non-Apple computers. The person who made that mistake was probably subjected to the iRack, though that may be stretching the truth.

Pick up any book on CSS and you will see a number of extra things you have to do to make IE render properly.

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