OSx86 Hit with DMCA Threat from Apple

February 16th, 2006 at 2:00 PM - News by Jeff Gamet

The OSx86 project Web site, which provides a community forum on running Mac OS X 10.4 on non-Mac hardware, has been served with a notice from Apple that it is violating the United Stateis DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). OSx86 has temporarily shut down its forums, but the rest of the site is still active.

The forums section on the site now displays this message:

Weire sorry to report that despite our best efforts, the OSx86 Project has been served with a DMCA violation notice. The forum will be unavailable while we evaluate its contents to remove any violations present. We thank you for your patience in this matter.

Apple contends that Mac OS X is not licensed to be used on non-Mac hardware, and trying to do so is a violation of the companyis terms of use. As a reminder to so called "hackers," Apple even left a poem embedded in its code. OSx86 found the verse and posted that on its site, too.

Your karma check for today:
There once was a user that whined
his existing OS was so blind,
heid do better to pirate
an OS that ran great
but found his hardware declined.
Please donit steal Mac OS!
Really, thatis way uncool.
(C) Apple Computer, Inc.

Although the OSx86 Project feels that it has not violated the DMCA, it has shut down its forums while it evaluates the posts for possible violations.

Representatives from the OSx86 Project were not available for comment.