Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 21st Sep 2009 08:44 UTC, submitted by Cytor
There are several options out there if you wan to run Mac OS X on your non-Apple labelled computer, but one of them appears to be in serious trouble. It has been uncovered that the EFI-X module is nothing more than a USB stick with a DRM chip, with code from the hackintosh community on it - without attribution. On top of that, its firmware update utility uses LGPL code - again, without attribution.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Can you clarify what you mean?
Does most software sold in the Netherlands come with a click-thru license?
As a lot of of software is written outside the Netherlands and imported, a lot of software comes with click-tru license. They can usually be safely ignored.
Can you buy a single copy of Windows and load it on hundreds of PCs?
No, the copyright law will prevent you. Copyright law gives you permission to do the copying you absolutely need to do to use the copy of a program in a normal way. Installing is required to use a copy of a program in a normal way.
To install on hundreds of PC's you need a copyright license (not an EULA).
By the way, Microsoft is very well aware of the laws of the Netherlands. They still try to do something that looks like an EULA, but present it more like "terms of use" and describe the behaviour of Windows, for example that it will phone home for activation. It is written in Dutch language refers specifically to concepts in the Dutch law. As it doesn't try to forbid typical things like reverse engineering, it isn't immedeately illegal. It would be much more difficult to fight Microsoft EULA's than usual EULA's.
If you buy a book do you have the right to turn it into a blockbuster movie... as long as you don't actually copy it?
A blockbuster movie based on a book, is not an independend work. It is a multiplication of the story in the book. A story itself is already copyrightable, so this would again be prevented by copyright law.
I am having a little trouble believing that the laws in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany etc seem to have such low regard for the concept of intellectual property.
These countries have a high regard for intellectual property, but have a high regard for consumer rights too. Trying to force a consumer to agree to something after he already spent his money sounds unfair, and the law is in line with that.