up vote 25 down vote favorite
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I've seen questions about pirating software down voted and closed. I'm wondering if Hackintosh questions are also disallowed? If so, why?

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You can always put it to a vote. Post a Hackintosh question and lets see if the Community wants to keep it around. – surfasb Jan 26 '12 at 23:35
@surfasb How do you put things to a vote on these forums? – Jason R. Mick Apr 13 '12 at 18:11
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@JasonR.Mick: Up Vote the bejesus out of this question. – surfasb Apr 14 '12 at 18:10

3 Answers

up vote 15 down vote accepted

Simple. It's a legal grey area. Super User doesn't want to build a reputation for encouraging something that may or may not be illegal, so it was decided to stay safe rather than sorry.

I have actually proposed to have the tag banned here and given some more reasons why.

Sathya ♦: There is no reversal in status. This answer still holds good from a moderation point of view.

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SU doesn't want to build a reputation for encouraging something that may not be illegal? You want to rule out encouraging legal activities? – sampablokuper Apr 22 '11 at 0:35
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@sampablokuper: We don't want to encourage using different methods than those allowed by the usage agreements, whether or not the user agreement holds in court. As there aren't worldwide guaranteed legal agreements, we can't suppose this is completely legal. We don't want to discuss every single matter that might be illegal in one or another way, it's very clear that if one does a Hackintosh that he is not using what he is supposed to be using. As a comparison, BitTorrent and Tor have their legal uses and merely serve as a medium hence those are allowed... – Tom Wijsman Jan 8 '12 at 19:10
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In that case, don't say, "Super User doesn't want to build a reputation for encouraging something that ... may not be illegal;" say, "Super User doesn't want to build a reputation for encouraging any activities contrary to EULAs." These are completely distinct concepts. – sampablokuper Jan 10 '12 at 19:44
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Are you sure SU "doesn't want to build a reputation" for this kind of stuff? I seem to recall an interview with one of the stack exchange founders, where he said, in general, he has no problems at all with "questionable" questions (he was talking about breaking NDA's on stack overflow). – Abhi Beckert Jan 15 '12 at 18:05
Good point, @Gilles, especially as when I deleted my answer I flagged Diago's answer to ask the moderators to make Diago's answer more official. Though that flag was considered helpful, no such change was made. Any moderator: feel free to delete my answer again, if the above is indeed the official point of view. – Arjan Feb 23 '12 at 0:16
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There is no reversal in status. Diago's answer still holds good from a moderation point of view. – Sathya♦ Feb 23 '12 at 10:48
No. Use MacOS on Windows is not illegal. Apple just doesn't support this for any error appear !!! – hqt Apr 27 '12 at 14:32
@hqt see here lockergnome.com/osx/2012/02/24/are-hackintosh-computers-legal Apple does not allow it. "Use MacOS on Windows" is also wrong btw; unless the topic suddenly changed to virtualising ;) – klyonrad Aug 22 '12 at 13:34
up vote 15 down vote

Simple. As discussed in many similar matters on Meta Stack Overflow, there is no such things as worldwide legal agreements. Apple can put into their usage agreements whatever they like, in many countries that would never hold in court. One could use the comments to warn people about it, or when answering mention it as well. But forbidding questions smells like censorship.

So, I'd allow these questions.

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as Diago answered quite some time ago, the moderation team has decided to discourage these questions. Furthermore, Stack Exchange is a US company, and is therefore beholden to US law. – nhinkle♦ Apr 16 '11 at 21:53
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@nhinkle - what US law is being broken by answering a question about "hackingtosh" installations? (Assume, for the moment, the asker has a legal unopened disc of the Mac OSX, not installed on any machine, and that the asker wants to install a single instance on one PC. (to avoid any "piracy" / torrent / etc distractions)) – DanBeale Sep 20 '11 at 15:32
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@nhinkle If this is official policy, wouldn't it make sense to delete this answer? The current accepted answer doesn't look "official" in any way, considering that Diago stepped down as a moderator. If I were a visitor of this Q/A here, I'd find it highly confusing. – slhck♦ Jan 8 '12 at 14:58
@slhck, agreed. Will delete this soonish. – Arjan Jan 8 '12 at 15:03
@nhinkle, please see the new comments at Diago's answer. Thanks! – Arjan Feb 23 '12 at 0:17
@slhck, I did delete this, but as I am not sure it's indeed a moderator decision, I've undeleted again. See the new comments at Diago's answer. (And this very answer might be deleted again; that's fine to me, if it's indeed an official decision.) – Arjan Feb 23 '12 at 0:19
​＠Arjan, ​​＠nhinkle, @slhck: there is no applicable SE-wide policy, so this is a community decision. The moderators do not have a binding vote here. Diago spoke here as a community member, just like Arjan. Hackintosh questions became banned because until you (Arjan) posted your answer, the consensus was against them. The policy would change if your answer rose to a significantly higher score that Diago's. – Gilles Feb 23 '12 at 0:36
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it seems that this community is very divided about this issue. The "allow the hacking/pirating!" comments are gettings as much points as the "don't censor" comments... – klyonrad Aug 22 '12 at 13:37
up vote 2 down vote

All innovation explores the limits of performance and behaviour.

Hacking is just making hardware do something you know it is capable of doing. When the designers don't meet expectations--whether non-tech-related considerations motivate restrictions on permissible usage, or the designers simply fall short in the inspiration department--it is only natural to marshal one's D.I.Y. resources.

Superuser should be one of those resources. The contributors here are both helpful and knowledgeable. It's a powerful combination that should be allowed to foster creativity and encourage innovation. Collaboration isn't forced on anyone who isn't comfortable with the ethical foundations of a question--if you don't want to get involved, just don't answer the question.

No country allows its corporations to single-handedly impose statutory limits on its citizens--even when the corporation is as successful and respected as Apple. It is absurd to imagine that any arbitrary EULA might enjoy the force of law.

  • There is nothing illegal about asking questions that abjure a EULA--you cannot call it a "grey area" if there is no law to skirt.

  • There is nothing illegal about offering ideas on how one might subvert a EULA. Speculation isn't contravention--and neither one is illegal.

Any site that calls itself Superuser has to allow a degree of freedom for forward-thinking.

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While I agree with your opinion; technically an EULA is a form of contract; which again are in principle protected by law – klyonrad Aug 22 '12 at 13:39

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