Macalike miffs software project

The GPL isn't so much about stopping software from being used and protecting the copyright of coders - it's more about preventing anyone from restricting the use of the software and freeing the code so that it can be used by anyone. The GPL would not have prevented Psystar from using this software - it explicitly allows for commercial use, but it also ensures that any further development by a commercial organisation is also released under the same terms and that anyone else can use the same software.

The type of license one releases one's work under really depends upon the reason for releasing it in the first place and the sort of licenses that prevent commercial use tend to end up, in practice, restricting the use of the software to a relatively small group of knowledgable users. The great mass of less knowledgeable users either won't know about it or will lack the understanding and confidence to install, configure and use it.

Commercial licenses, where the use of s/w depends upon payment of a fee, at least make some sense, even if they will eventually become obsolete and entirely superceeded by Open Source licenses such as the GPL, which make clear sense right from the start. 'Personal use only' licenses don't really make any sense at all, except to the coder who feels that if they can't make money from their work, then no one else should be able to either.

I think apple are at fault for this even happening, the fact that the software is X86 compatable, and that can only be used with "only apple branded products " is a monopoly and quite frankly apple had this coming to them, I want an apple, I want the intel processor, i want the intel chipset, i want the 8800GT I want the 4 gb of ram, and a decent harddrive, but what i dont want is some white acrylic case and some shotty designed monitor that will cost me 300% more then what i can buy the compnents for.

I say good on this mob for showing steve what it is the ppl really want, its the OPERATING SYSTEM and it always has been, Jobs started all of this when he went X86. he planted the seed, and the x86 project and this mob gave it some water. they will be responsible for apple to pretty much double or tripple sales just in the OS, people have had enough of M/soft, they want the mac OS without the 4K price tag. give it to them Steve, make some money sell 8 million copies of ur OS, x86 project gets what they deserve (CASH) and so does this other mob. Everyone wins.

So the guy didn't release his software under a proper licence to begin with, and now he feels he's been screwed. He should have put it under the GPL, which is one of the best-tested Free Software licences around, which would have ensured that he was treated fairly.