Apple serves DMCA notice to OSx86 Project

Apple's legal team this week notified the OSx86 Project — a site dedicated to enabling Mac OS X to run on non-Apple-branded machines — that it is in violation of the United States DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), forcing the site to close down its user forms and post notice.

"We're sorry to report that despite our best efforts, the OSx86 Project has been served with a DMCA violation notice," reads a note on the OSx86 Project Web site. "The forum will be unavailable while we evaluate its contents to remove any violations present. We thank you for your patience in this matter."

Apple has gone through extensive efforts to develop and install technology to prevent users from running Mac OS X on computers other than Macs; however, hackers have been able to successfully work around many of the security mechanisms in the operating system and recently posted instructions and discussion of how to alter Mac OS X 10.4.4 to run on generic Intel-based machines.

Earlier this week, the OSx86 wesite uncovered a secret poem embedded by Apple in the code of Mac OS X for Intel, urging hackers not to work around Mac OS X security mechanisms.

The poem reads: "Your karma check for today: There once was a user that whined/his existing OS was so blind/he'd do better to pirate/an OS that ran great/but found his hardware declined./Please don't steal Mac OS!/Really, that's way uncool./(C) Apple Computer, Inc."

Apple also put in a separate hidden message, "Don't Steal Mac OS X.kext," in another spot for would-be hackers.

"We can confirm that this text is built into our products," Apple said in a statement to the Associated Press. "Hopefully it, and many other legal warnings, will remind people that they should not steal Mac OS X."