roommate downloaded illegal OS X on my computer

[Greenherbz]

HELP ME!
I don't know what to do and I'm very nervous about this. I asked my room mate to download an episode of Weeds for me, came back home and he was like 'downloaded the new OS X Lion on your computer because I needed AirDrop to send the file'

I don't know what to do, I'm worried apple is going to track me down. I just want to go back and pay for the real version as well as clean off anything illegal on my computer. It has been acting weird and glitchy.

Can anybody help me out with this? I tried googling but there isn't much i could find about getting rid of anything pirated.
Should I bother with some sort of antivirus software like Norton? I was always under the impression they were useless on macs bc macs don't get viruses/spyware but recently heard this wasn't the case

Anyone?

 

[Greenherbz]

basically I'm not comfortable with any of the pirated stuff on my computer and i want to start attainting all my stuff legally, how do i go about getting rid of it [not a lot, just some music, two tv episodes and this stupid fucking OS] and restarting

 

[andysayshi]

The first thing to be aware of is that Apple don't use any anti-piracy measures on their OS upgrades, so there's very little reason to be worried. There are lots of pirated versions of OS X Lion floating around, and it's unlikely that it will cause any problems at all.

Their are no viruses for Mac OS X. There is no known malware for OS X Lion. Any known malware that has ever existed in Mac OS X does not work in Lion. If you're really worried about it, install the free Sophos Anti Virus. But it really isn't necessary.

If you want to keep things legit, just delete the music and video files you're concerned about. Then open the App Store application and purchase the $30 OS X Lion upgrade. It's a 3GB download.

If the upgrade won't run (because Lion is already installed) reboot your computer and hold down Command and R keys during restart. This boots into Recovery mode. Then run the installer again.

But, as I said before, Apple don't use any copy protection or rights management with their OSs, and never have. Give more details about your computer being "weird or glitchy" for more in-depth discussion about that.

 

[andysayshi]

^ It's certainly possible, theoretically. But news of malware in OS X tends to spread very quickly, because it is so rare, and I've not heard of a single incidence of a Lion installer being malware-affected.

As I said, if you're concerned about such things, install a free anti-virus tool like Sophos. If you're feeling really paranoid, install Little Snitch and don't allow any outgoing data traffic you don't know the reason for.

 

[Arcturus]

The reason that your pirated version of Lion seems glitchy and weird is because Lion is like that compared to other, more polished versions of OS X. Compare 10.7.2 to 10.6.8, and it's not going to look great for Lion. Battery life is way down with Lion, and it uses a lot more RAM as well. Lion has had only two updates, so it's not going to work as well as an OS that has had 8 updates like Snow Leopard (which I am assuming you had). I think that the version he downloaded is going to be the same one from the App Store.

I honestly wouldn't be worried. There are no known reports of Apple tracking down pirated versions of it's OS. In fact, I doubt they can. If they can, they aren't worrying about it. They are much more worried about iOS these days it seems.

There are no known viruses for OS X. There are cases of malware popping up, but it requires the admin password to install. I highly doubt that the Installer was infected. The only instance of malware that has popped up in the past few months was a piece that posed as an Adobe Flash player update.

You should be fine. Just keep everything the way it is, and install OS X Lion updates as they are released by Apple and things will get better. You can try reinstalling it if that's what'll make you feel better, but I think it will end up being the same as it is. Lion is general just isn't on the level of Snow Leopard yet, but it will be. If you are really worried, you can do a backup, and then do a clean install to see if performance works better. You could even do a clean install and put Snow Leopard or Leopard back on.

 

[GamerBear]

I think more and more people are installing pirated versions of Mac OS X. Have you tried to get the older versions of Mac OS X? Leopard on Amazon is almost $150 and the highest I've seen it go is almost $300. I see that Lion was only $29.99 that's not much as compared to trying to buy an older version of OS X.

Didn't your Mac come with the disk? If you are scared why don't you just down grade back to Snow Leopard and be rid of the pirated version of Lion.

 

[Arcturus]

Going back to Snow Leopard from Lion might not be as easy as it is to go from Snow Leopard to Lion. It would probably require a clean install, though you could just try installing over top of Lion.

Snow Leopard and Lion were only $30. I don't know why you would want Leopard or older, unless you are trying to install on a PowerPC Mac that Snow Leopard and Lion won't support.

 

[GamerBear]

Going back to Snow Leopard from Lion might not be as easy as it is to go from Snow Leopard to Lion. It would probably require a clean install, though you could just try installing over top of Lion.

Snow Leopard and Lion were only $30. I don't know why you would want Leopard or older, unless you are trying to install on a PowerPC Mac that Snow Leopard and Lion won't support.

In the OP's case they should just down grade to Snow Leopard so it's not "PIRATED". In my case since I have a PowerPC I installed to Leopard cause it's the last OS system that works with PPC.

 

[pai mei]

basically I'm not comfortable with any of the pirated stuff on my computer and i want to start attainting all my stuff legally, how do i go about getting rid of it [not a lot, just some music, two tv episodes and this stupid fucking OS] and restarting

stop being retarded?

no one will EVER 'track you down' lol. i have tons of downloaded stuff, and hey, look at me, im admitting it!!! since isp's record internet activity they could easily track this to me.....

hey! over here internet police! ive broken the law numerous times and am laughing at you guys because of it!!!


...... nope, no one at my door. good god, grow up, no one cares about your pirated software, and never will. it's like those 25 year olds that are afraid of pot cause they never tried it when they were young because it was OMG-ILLEGAL!!

 

[bankside]

You do know that you can download it from Apple, right? Is it possible he just installed it on your machine after having purchased it himself? Apple lets you download to multiple machines.

 

[GamerBear]

stop being retarded?

no one will EVER 'track you down' lol. i have tons of downloaded stuff, and hey, look at me, im admitting it!!! since isp's record internet activity they could easily track this to me.....

hey! over here internet police! ive broken the law numerous times and am laughing at you guys because of it!!!


...... nope, no one at my door. good god, grow up, no one cares about your pirated software, and never will. it's like those 25 year olds that are afraid of pot cause they never tried it when they were young because it was OMG-ILLEGAL!!

The only thing you could get out of downloading a pirated program or operating system is a virus.

 

[Greenherbz]

The first thing to be aware of is that Apple don't use any anti-piracy measures on their OS upgrades, so there's very little reason to be worried. There are lots of pirated versions of OS X Lion floating around, and it's unlikely that it will cause any problems at all.

Their are no viruses for Mac OS X. There is no known malware for OS X Lion. Any known malware that has ever existed in Mac OS X does not work in Lion. If you're really worried about it, install the free Sophos Anti Virus. But it really isn't necessary.

If you want to keep things legit, just delete the music and video files you're concerned about. Then open the App Store application and purchase the $30 OS X Lion upgrade. It's a 3GB download.

If the upgrade won't run (because Lion is already installed) reboot your computer and hold down Command and R keys during restart. This boots into Recovery mode. Then run the installer again.

But, as I said before, Apple don't use any copy protection or rights management with their OSs, and never have. Give more details about your computer being "weird or glitchy" for more in-depth discussion about that.

Thanks very much! When I said it's been 'glitchy' it's been doing a few suspicious things. Firstly, boot up time is drastically different, it takes my computer a lot longer just to turn on....other problems For example, I'm recently getting a lot of pop-up windows either something called MacKeeper or telling me I've won something, and they're usually the type that you can't get out of by clicking exit, you have to click the 'Yes' or 'Continue' or 'okay' button... sometimes it freezes up my safari and i have to Force Quit [then when i try to open safari again it re-opens the same window, causing it to keep freezing!]. Another thing it has been doing, is whenever I go to type in a username on a website, and i click to type my password, it automatically makes my cursor go back to the 'username' box and i end up actually typing out my password (i.e.username@hotmail.compassword). Those are the two examples i can think of off the top of my head. My battery usage has also been bazaar but that's been addressed below.

The reason that your pirated version of Lion seems glitchy and weird is because Lion is like that compared to other, more polished versions of OS X. Compare 10.7.2 to 10.6.8, and it's not going to look great for Lion. Battery life is way down with Lion, and it uses a lot more RAM as well. Lion has had only two updates, so it's not going to work as well as an OS that has had 8 updates like Snow Leopard (which I am assuming you had). I think that the version he downloaded is going to be the same one from the App Store.

I honestly wouldn't be worried. There are no known reports of Apple tracking down pirated versions of it's OS. In fact, I doubt they can. If they can, they aren't worrying about it. They are much more worried about iOS these days it seems.

There are no known viruses for OS X. There are cases of malware popping up, but it requires the admin password to install. I highly doubt that the Installer was infected. The only instance of malware that has popped up in the past few months was a piece that posed as an Adobe Flash player update.

You should be fine. Just keep everything the way it is, and install OS X Lion updates as they are released by Apple and things will get better. You can try reinstalling it if that's what'll make you feel better, but I think it will end up being the same as it is. Lion is general just isn't on the level of Snow Leopard yet, but it will be. If you are really worried, you can do a backup, and then do a clean install to see if performance works better. You could even do a clean install and put Snow Leopard or Leopard back on.

Thanks for the explanation!

stop being retarded?

no one will EVER 'track you down' lol. i have tons of downloaded stuff, and hey, look at me, im admitting it!!! since isp's record internet activity they could easily track this to me.....

hey! over here internet police! ive broken the law numerous times and am laughing at you guys because of it!!!


...... nope, no one at my door. good god, grow up, no one cares about your pirated software, and never will. it's like those 25 year olds that are afraid of pot cause they never tried it when they were young because it was OMG-ILLEGAL!!

LOL, thanks ...I don't need you to tell me which laws I need to follow and which ones I don't. I don't want the pirated stuff on my computer for multiple reasons, not just 'getting caught.' I'm not being retarded or paranoid.
and I smoke a lot of pot so

You do know that you can download it from Apple, right? Is it possible he just installed it on your machine after having purchased it himself? Apple lets you download to multiple machines.

You can't download it from apple. When I go to the app store to download it, the purchase button just says 'Installed' on it, and it won't let me click to purchase/download. I know for a fact he didn't purchase it because he told me he downloaded it offline.

New Question
I've been googling reverting from Lion back to SL, it seems the only way to do this is to use the disc that came with my computer. I have to go see if I have it back at home, but think I remember reading people were having a lot of trouble actually getting rid of Lion. Is it really as simple as backing up my stuff on a hard drive, then putting in the SL disc, and pressing Command R while it's booting up?

 

[GamerBear]

New Question
I've been googling reverting from Lion back to SL, it seems the only way to do this is to use the disc that came with my computer. I have to go see if I have it back at home, but think I remember reading people were having a lot of trouble actually getting rid of Lion. Is it really as simple as backing up my stuff on a hard drive, then putting in the SL disc, and pressing Command R while it's booting up?

No matter what, you should always back up stuff to an extra hard drive. Even when installing a new operating system.

 

[Diodorus]

Is the issue being discussed here for Mac owners only? Or could I set up a dual boot system and have the OS on my PC? Always wanted to try the Apple OS..Love my iphone.

 

[andysayshi]

Thanks very much! When I said it's been 'glitchy' it's been doing a few suspicious things. Firstly, boot up time is drastically different, it takes my computer a lot longer just to turn on....other problems For example, I'm recently getting a lot of pop-up windows either something called MacKeeper or telling me I've won something, and they're usually the type that you can't get out of by clicking exit, you have to click the 'Yes' or 'Continue' or 'okay' button... sometimes it freezes up my safari and i have to Force Quit [then when i try to open safari again it re-opens the same window, causing it to keep freezing!]. Another thing it has been doing, is whenever I go to type in a username on a website, and i click to type my password, it automatically makes my cursor go back to the 'username' box and i end up actually typing out my password (i.e.username@hotmail.compassword). Those are the two examples i can think of off the top of my head. My battery usage has also been bazaar but that's been addressed below.

MacKeeper is the Nortons of Mac OS - it's horrible, bloated security and management software (about 14 different apps) and I don't recommend anybody use it. It probably accounts for your slow boot time. Follow these instructions to remove MacKeeper, if you like.

But, if you'd prefer to do a clean install, which I would in your position, then after backing up all your files (including documents, music, photos, and whatever else you need to keep):

If you want to reinstall Snow Leopard from your original disc, just insert the disc, restart the computer and hold down the C key while you boot. It should boot from the CD. After choosing English language, go to the Tools menu, choose Disk Utilities, erase the main hard drive, then close Disk Utilities and continue the installation.

If you want to install Lion, you can purchase and download it from the App Store, then create a bootable USB drive with the installer. Or, if you want to keep things easy, clean-install Snow Leopard as described above, then buy and download the Lion updater and run it directly.

 

[Diodorus]

A buncha Hackintosh info is in this Wikipedia article.

That pretty much answers my question also..Thanks..

 

[Arcturus]

MacKeeper is the Nortons of Mac OS - it's horrible, bloated security and management software (about 14 different apps) and I don't recommend anybody use it. It probably accounts for your slow boot time. Follow these instructions to remove MacKeeper, if you like.

But, if you'd prefer to do a clean install, which I would in your position, then after backing up all your files (including documents, music, photos, and whatever else you need to keep):

If you want to reinstall Snow Leopard from your original disc, just insert the disc, restart the computer and hold down the C key while you boot. It should boot from the CD. After choosing English language, go to the Tools menu, choose Disk Utilities, erase the main hard drive, then close Disk Utilities and continue the installation.

If you want to install Lion, you can purchase and download it from the App Store, then create a bootable USB drive with the installer. Or, if you want to keep things easy, clean-install Snow Leopard as described above, then buy and download the Lion updater and run it directly.

If MacKeeper was there before the Lion upgrade, then I don't see how it could affect it. My Lion boot times seem extremely long too. I have a MBP I bought in August that came with Lion. However, I think that something got screwed up when I migrated from my Snow Leopard iMac. My boot times are around 3 minutes, meanwhile other people with MBP's seem to be reporting boot times around 30 seconds. Someone even said theirs booted in 10 seconds. I think a clean install is in order for me.

If you want to reinstall Lion, you can just boot up into the Recovery Partition (Cmd+R) while booting. From there, choose Install OS X Lion, and then you will redownload Lion to your machine. It will reinstall over your existing OS with no loss of settings or files.. The copy downloaded will be from Apple servers, so it wouldn't be messed up.

It would be hard to purchase and download Lion from the App Store because his Mac is using Lion. Because of this, it would just say "Installed" instead of anything about buying it. The only way he can purchase Lion from the App Store is with a Mac with Snow Leopard currently installed. He would need to find someone with Snow Leopard still installed. A clean install directly to Lion would be the only possibility IMO. If he reinstalled Snow Leopard and then went to Lion, he would still have a bunch of Snow Leopard junk on his machine that could bog it down. My iMac that I upgraded to Lion still has Snow Leopard files on it it seems. The other day, I was looking in my Library and I found Front Row files. Front Row was removed in Lion, yet the files remain. Even my MBP, a machine that never had Snow Leopard, has Snow Leopard files from the migration. A clean install directly to Lion would definitely be the best solution, I think.

Now if you plan on reverting permanently to Snow Leopard, then just reinstall it and be done. However, if you eventually planned on going to Lion, I would just bite the bullet and go to Lion directly at this time.

I hope I haven't given any wrong info. If anything things fishy to anyone, let me know and I will check it out.