Case study Engineering Ethics Mahmoud Darawsheh

Psystar corporation  Psystar Corporation was a company based in Florida, owned by Rudy and Robert Pedraza  Sold Open Computers with pre-installed with Mac OS X Leopard, under the name of "hackintosh" computers.  They could hack the Apple Boot loader and break so it become installable on IBM PCs

Business Model  As they had some good technical engineer they were buying the Mac OS X from apple market modify it and install it under the name of Hackintosh on the PC  The company started to sell these computers after installing the Hackintosh on them  Although they bought the Software from Apple market, they started modifying it without to read the Apple EULA (End User License Agreement).

Legal issues  Inside EULA :  Forbids third-party installations of Mac OS X  Hackentosh violation because Hackentosh is not installed using fully apple installer  Apple Software must not be used on non Apple branded Hardware without Apple Authority  The core Hackentosh business is based on installing it on much cheaper computers

Eula Sample

Psystar Against Apple  Apple called Psystar to stop selling Hackentosh, but Psystar reject that.  They claimed they work is legal as they buy the OS from apple before modify it.  Psystar claimed that law don’t allow Apple to control what end user do with the software after buying it

Licensing is not selling  Actually Apple don’t sell the product to their customers they all life licensing using it but it still owned by Apple as what written in EULA, so Apple has the right to ask Psystar to stop Selling Hackentosh  Psystar deny that and completed selling Hackentosh

Apple Lawsuit Psystar  July 3, 2008, Apple filed a lawsuit against Psystar.  November 27, 2008, Apple claimed "Psystar violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by dodging copy-protection technologies Apple uses to protect Mac OS X.  August 20, 2009, California Judge Alsup ordered Psystar to pay $5,000 of Apple's legal fees

Apple Lawsuit Psystar  April 2009, Apple showed to court that their sales has been decreased due to hackentosh and Psystar still selling  August 20, 2009, Court ordered Psystar to pay $5,000 of Apple's legal fees.  October 8, 2009, the court ruled that Psystar was not entitled to Apple’s profit margin data  November 13, 2009, the court granted Apple's copyrights were violated

Apple Lawsuit Psystar  December 1, 2009, Psystar had to pay Apple $2.7 million for copyright infringement, breach of contract, violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, additional damages and attorneys.  December 15, 2009, the judge in the California action issued a permanent injunction barring Psystar from manufacturing, distributing, or assisting anyone with any sort of device or technology

Conclusion  It is important for any software based project to read EULA carefully and to apply it.  Software owner usually comes after the product is being produce,sold and ask to their right after mass production has been done.  Be away from pirating software.

Ethical Issue  Due to IEEE-CS code of ethics  2.02 ensure that resources are authentically approved  2.03 only use property authorized by owner  3.11 use data legitimately 

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