First things first: I don't appreciate software piracy and I really want to spend money on software that I use and that I work and make money with. I don't want this question closed just because I consider downloading software, I only want honest opinions and alternatives.
Here we go: So I have my OS X Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD, but it's horribly scratched and won't boot anymore. It endlessly loads and at some point I have to force pull it out of the disc slot.
How can I reset my Mac then?
- Can I take my original disk to an Apple Store and ask them for a replacement? Will they believe me, even if I don't have the receipt anymore?
- Would owning the original disk make it okay for me to look somewhere on the internet and download it? I don't even know if that will work without hassles.
- Could I try to read the disk to an image with some error correction methods? Maybe during boot it can't read some files, but some other program can?
- Is there any other way of resetting the Mac? Mine's now over 3 years old an I seem to have misplaced my original discs that had 10.4 on it.
- Or should I just buy a new 10.6 upgrade disk? (Which is not really what I want to do)
Answers and opinions would be much appreciated.
Answer
In general you purchase a license to use the operating system on a pre-defined number of computers. You're not buying the media per se. It is perfectly legal to install a pirated version of an operating system as long as you have your own license to use that version of the operating system.
As you have the original disk, you have the license to use the software. Where you source the software from is neither here nor there, so don't feel guilty about downloading it.
It only becomes illegal if you don't have a license.
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