does anyone know more about the new virus the was created by hackers that can infect apple computers? just read something on yahoo news.
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20,000 computer have been infected?
- Thread starter stevieapollo
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You don't have to worry about it unless you are stealing software (torrents).
Don
First it's not a virus it's a trojan. Second it's only if you downloaded the illegal torrent of iWork 09
Below the discussion threads:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/638947/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/640905/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/638947/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/640905/
First:
Piracy is not theft.
Pirating software is not the same as stealing it.
Now that we've got that out of the way...
To the OP: it's not a virus. It can't spread on its own. In order to infect your machine, you have to give your administrator password to infected software -- specifically infected copies of iWork. If you don't do this, it can't infect your machine. Period.
I kinda view this as a piracy version of natural selection. iWork can be downloaded from Apple's website for free. Why the hell would you torrent it? If you do, you get what you deserve IMHO...
The moral of the story: don't give your admin password to software that you don't trust absolutely. If you pirated it, don't give it your admin password. Not now, not ever.
Mac OS X isn't Vista -- any time something asks for your admin password, it should raise a giant red flag in your mind. A red flag with sirens. And flashing lights. And a guard who walks up to you and says "Hey buddy, are you absolutely sure that you want to give this software complete and total control over your Mac?" Get the idea?
Piracy is not theft.
Pirating software is not the same as stealing it.
Now that we've got that out of the way...
To the OP: it's not a virus. It can't spread on its own. In order to infect your machine, you have to give your administrator password to infected software -- specifically infected copies of iWork. If you don't do this, it can't infect your machine. Period.
I kinda view this as a piracy version of natural selection. iWork can be downloaded from Apple's website for free. Why the hell would you torrent it? If you do, you get what you deserve IMHO...
The moral of the story: don't give your admin password to software that you don't trust absolutely. If you pirated it, don't give it your admin password. Not now, not ever.
Mac OS X isn't Vista -- any time something asks for your admin password, it should raise a giant red flag in your mind. A red flag with sirens. And flashing lights. And a guard who walks up to you and says "Hey buddy, are you absolutely sure that you want to give this software complete and total control over your Mac?" Get the idea?
How do you figure? It's okay to take something that isn't yours, without paying for it? I'm going to Best Buy to see if I can "Pirate" a new HD TV... 
Thanks for turning yet another thread into the intelligent people vs. the self-justifying people.
Tell me what piracy is, then, if not theft, and why people go to jail for doing so?
Look, it's simple: theft involves taking something in a manner that deprives the owner of it.
Piracy does not.
I know that the RIAA/MPAA have spent millions of dollars getting you to think that piracy and theft are one and the same, but the truth is that they're not. Don't believe me? Ask a lawyer whether duplicating a piece of software without the copyright holder's permission is prosecutable as theft.
To help you understand the concept, some folks have created this nice graphic:
Your example of the HDTV would be theft: the store no longer has the HDTV. If, however, I make an copy of iWork without permission, Apple still has the same number of copies of iWork (and of every other asset, for that matter) as they did before I made the copy.
They don't go to jail for theft. They go to jail for copyright infringement. They're both illegal, thus the jail time -- but they're also different things, thus the different sentences.
Oh, and I'm not trying to justify anything. If I were, don't you think I'd try to equate copyright infringement to something that wasn't illegal, rather than clearly state that it is?
You see, the problem here is in the name. I was under the impression that the word "piracy" came from what pirates did: steal things. Things that didn't belong to them. Things they couldn't get in their current socioeconomic state without theft.
Piracy deprives the software designer of money. Thus, theft.
"But if I couldn't pirate it, I wouldn't have bought it anyway! Therefore it's not a lost sale!"
If you wouldn't have bought it, you don't deserve it. And why would you want it if you wouldn't have bought it?
While according to the Supreme Court, piracy isn't technically the same as theft, piracy is still illegal and morally wrong. To argue otherwise, using the "piracy isn't theft" argument is splitting hairs. Piracy is wrong. You'd agree if you were the software developer losing millions to bootleggers.
Depending on the program, the developers aren't actually losing money. Take for example Adobe CS4. Do you really think that the majority of people who pirate it would actually go buy it if they couldn't get it for free? No, they wouldn't. It's only because it's available for free that people grab it and use it. So while the act of pirating the software is undoubtedly illegal, it's not necessarily taking money away from the developers in every instance because that money would have never went their way in the first place.
No, I just made that point. If they wouldn't have bought it, they don't deserve it. They are making money off of the software that they steal.
THAT. is what is wrong.
Yes its is. Companies have to do damage control because they need to explain to their paying customers why a slew of high school script kiddies have access to 'l33t warez' and destroying the brand name by posting low octane websites and image edits sporting the "made with pS11!!" caption.
Comparing iWork to Photoshop is just plain dumb. Saying its ok to pirate one and not the other because of price is just as stupid.
A) iWork is backed by Apple. Photoshop is backed by Adobe. Apple sells a slew of hardware and software , with the exception of the OS, is on the backburner. Adobe sells software and type. Nothing else.
B) Photographers charge enough to cover the cost of their equipment in just a few calls, with the rest being living wages and capital (or profit, however you can look at it). If you are worth your salt in the game, Photoshop and a decent camera can mean serious $$$, especially with many photographers in the high end circuit investing a mere $15k in gear (1k for software, 14k for camera and supplies) while charging $5k-$10k per shoot, easily.
Unless you make snazzy presentations and wicked text documents, iWork isn't worth 800 dollars and shouldn't be compared as such.
Some folks seem to assume that because I'm differentiating between piracy and theft that I think one is more morally acceptable than the other. While there are cases in which I think "piracy" is justified, this isn't one of them (and the cases where I think it is are very, very few and far between -- I can count the number of times it's been morally acceptable on one hand.)
Oh, and for a period of time back c. 2005/6, I *was* a developer losing money to "pirates". Not millions, true, but then again I wasn't a multi-million dollar business to begin with.
As clarification, I'm using the term "piracy" colloquially, referring to casual/personal copyright infringement. Commercial copyright infringement (i.e. accepting money in exchange for unauthorized copies) is a completely different beast.
That logic doesn't work at all. What if I only need a feature once, so I use a trial? If I hadn't used the trial, I would have had to pay for the software. Therefore I'm depriving the designer of money. By your logic, that's theft.
What about if I use a piece of software on a public terminal, such as in a library? What if I make that use a regular practice so that I don't have to buy a copy? Is that theft? By your logic, it is.
There's a reason that I didn't say that -- it's a poor argument. It's a good argument for why developers shouldn't worry about piracy (and why they shouldn't try to fight it with DRM), but for the purposes of confirming that copyright infringement != theft, it's a poor argument.
Then again, you could only really considering using that as a distinguishing factor between copyright infringement and theft if you first accepted that anything that deprived the software designer of money was theft... (see above.)