Nabbed from Cubs Out Loud Blog

When people talk about Gay Marriage, they often bring up Civil Unions as a solution.  When I first heard it, it seemed like a reasonable solution.  It would give Gay Americans all the legal rights of married couples, and it would still not tangle us all up with the traditional definition of marriage.

But now that time has passed, I’m looking at this issue in a very new light.  I don’t think Civil Unions are enough.  It has to be Gay Marriage, no ifs, ands, or buts.  Why?  Because Civil Unions remind me an awful lot of separate water fountains for blacks and whites.  It is “Separate but equal.”

Sorry, that’s bull.  I don’t think Civil Unions go far enough.  I love my partner, and I want to marry him.  So why then, can I not marry him?  Plenty of straight people enter in loveless marriages, but those of us who are gay and love our partners can’t get married.  That’s unfair, and I, for one, won’t stand for Separate but Equal treatment.  America tried that.  It was wrong then, and it’s just as wrong now.

I’ve ignored this blog for too long.  I’ve finally decided that I needed a place to discuss issues in the news, especially those things I feel passionate about.  That would include things like Gay Marriage, the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Aid to the Poor, and many other issues where my view would probably receive the label “Liberal”.

If no one ever reads it, that’ll be fine.  I just need a place to rant from time to time.  A friend of mine recently told me that no one rants like I do.  I disagree.  Many people rant better than I do, but nobody probably rants as much.

Okay, for those who don’t know about this whole story, let me start at the beginning. Apple’s EULA for OS X says that you can only install OS X on Apple approved hardware. (Lame, I know). Well, a plucky little company called Psystar has started selling machines that run Leopard.

The technical details of how they get this to work is irrelevant to this discussion (though it is interesting, from a hardware hacking point of view.) They are basically doing the exact same thing that the creators of the Kalyway Leopard did, which is emulate the Apple Darwin bootloader.

Apple has pretty much ignored them for a long time. There were some issues at first (like the fan on the motherboard running constantly, and no security updates), but Psystar has fixed these issues. They sell several products with Leopard as an optional install.

July 3rd, Apple finally filed a lawsuit against Psystar. I don’t know why, but I’m praying Psystar wins. Of course, their only legal defense is to claim that the EULA is not binding because it contains illegalities, thus making voiding the EULA. The primary illegality is of course, the Doctrine of First Sale. Basically, if Apple sells me a Leopard disc, and I sell it, whoever I sell it to should be able to install it wherever they want. Of course, Apple will claim that what they sell is a license to use Leopard on Apple approved hardware. The courts have had mixed feelings about EULAs over the years, but precedence is on the side of Psystar.  In Softman v. Adobe and Novell, Inc. v. CPU Distrib., Inc, the courts said the bundled software could be resold, despite the software creators’ claim that it was only a license(the EULA) they were selling and distributing.

From a legal standpoint, it’s easy to see how Psystar can win this.  Any person could reasonably assume that they were purchasing software, not just a license, when they bought a copy of OS X Leopard.  It comes in a physical box with a physical disc.  It is reasonable to conclude, then, that some good was transferred, not just a license.  Psystar will be fighting an uphill battle, of course, because of the sheer amount of money that Apple can throw at this if they choose to.  Personally, I’d pony up some money for Psystar if they asked, even though I would never buy one of their machines (I like my security updates to work in a timely fashion.)

So what happens if Apple loses this battle?  Who knows.  It will make a lot of software manufacturers nervous.

This is the replacement for dOgBOi on Tech.  Why would I replace it?  Well, a lot of reasons.  I write for quite a few blogs now, including Boxtech Blog, Social on the Web, and Blogcritics.org, not to mention my very own Continent of Denial Tumblr project, and my personal blog I Am dOgBOi.  I have plenty of places to write about my opinions of what’s going on in technology and in Web 2.0

I’m also working on starting my own startup on the interwebs.  That means that when I’m looking at new internet properties, I’ll be looking at them to see their ultimate effect on me and my market.  I’m no marketing wonk, but I don’t know how objective I can be, especially with companies in the same sphere.  We’ll see how that works, but you probably won’t see reviews here unless it fits in with the new theme.

So what’s going to go here?  Well, I’m not quite sure.  It’s going to evolve over time.  But I’ll be delivering lots of stuff here.  I’m going to start some lifecasting, though I refuse to stick my face in front of a camera all day with constant streaming.  Instead, I’ll be taping, and throwing stuff up when I feel like it.  I’ll be taking lots of pictures.  I’ll be dropping audio tracks in this feed.  Whatever.  It’s going to be fun.

And that’s what I want out of this blog.  If it becomes a chore, it’ll end.  This isn’t a way for me to make money, or stand on a soapbox.  I just want to connect with people at different levels and this is a vehicle for that.

Oh, and the latinesque title says “Here Lies dOgBOi.”