Another Apple Reply On MUG Software License Issue
"Apple appreciates your willingness to distribute our updates and your revised agreements allow you to continue distributing all but the Mac OS Updates. The Apple identity and how the Mac OS is distribute [sic] and its presentation is very important, so in order to preserve the Apple 'look and feel' our customers have come to expect, we made the decision to discontinue allowing others to distribute Apple's Mac OS Updates. The Internet is a great place to see the latest and greatest Apple has to offer and this is encouraged by our customers visiting apple.com to download their latest Mac OS Update. Thanks! Paul Sonnenberg Apple SWL Team"
Until this alteration of their license, MUGs provided a real service to their members who do not have high speed internet access since Mac OS Updates have been quite large as Mike pointed out. The explanation above does not make a lot of sense. What is the "look and feel" of an .smi file that Apple wants to preserve? They all look exactly the same! Could this change in policy portend an end to free Mac OS Update downloads? Or does it simply portend an implementation of Mac OS 9's rumored "automatic" update feature like in QuickTime 4? Brian Nakamoto is sure it is the latter and I agree.
Saw something? Send a tip
The archive ran on reader tips. What did you see, where, and do you want the credit?