Assignment 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Assignment 2 - Essay Example ve with regard to what computer systems their software runs on and what computer systems it does not through sabotaging the Max OS X operating system. The situation with Apple is more complex and deserves a more concrete explanation. Apple produces an operating system which is supposed to only run on machines which are made by Apple. In recent times, Apple moved to the Intel processors and along with this move, it left the door open for other companies to use the same motherboard and chips to provide Mac clones. One such company is Psystar, which has produced computers running Mac OS X at rates which are much cheaper than comparative Apple computers. The exclusivity of Mac OS X running on Apple made machines is therefore under threat and it is likely that Apple would want to put a stop to this. At the same time, there have been court rulings which hold â€Å"that a software publisher cant require you to run an operating system on a specific type of hardware (Himowitz, 2008, Pg. 1)†. However, there is nothing stopping Apple from releasing an update to its Mac OS X system which stops the computer from running if an ‘unauthorized’ system is detected. Essentially, Apple â€Å"can always sabotage the usurper by issuing updates that wont run on the alien machine, or that disable it (Himowitz, 2008, Pg. 1)†. Here, sabotage may be entirely legal and the only result of the sabotage would be that a lot of the people using Psystar created Apple computers could be left holding the bag. Apple has done the same in the past with its iPhone devices which were hacked to run on wireless carriers other than the ones licensed by Apple. The laws and the ethics concerning this topic need to be defined further since once a buyer has purchased a device or has bought a piece of software it should be permissible for them to use it any way they like. Apple should not be able to sabotage an iPhone which is not being used in the manner Apple would like to see it being used. If Apple