The OSX86 project, where owners of copies of Apple's OS X discuss how to install their property on non-Apple computers, has instituted a policy of censoring links to entire sites if there's a chance that some part of that site might contain material that might cause Apple to threaten to sue them.
Las week I reported on how Apple had invoked the loathsome Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to censor legitimate technical investigation into the means by which its customers can increase the utility of its products.
The proprietors of the site have reinstated their message-boards, but in order to minimize further legal liability from the corporate giant, they've opted to prohibit any links to a site run by a user called Maxxuss, who has written patches that enable new uses of Apple's products.
Maxxuss doesn't stand accused of distributing copies of Apple's materials, nor of telling people how to get copies of their products. By all accounts, he was written his own, original software that owners of Mac OS X can use to extend the usefulness of their property (of course, people who've downloaded Apple's software without paying for it can also take advantage of this, but it's a principle in law and civil society that we shouldn't punish the innocent to get at the guilty).
The proprietors of the site note that Maxxuss is a valuable contributor to the technical discourse on the functioning of Apple's products, that his site has much that is of "news value," but to avoid the risks associated with Apple's legal threats, they've opted to institute the indiscriminate ban on links to his site.
Our first-class moderating staff has helped ensure that direct links to any patches are not allowed. We have in the past linked to the homepage of Maxxuss – but not to the offending 10.4.4 patches – in the interest of news, but we've removed those links just in case.
(via Macslash)
