Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android

Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by fragmede on Tuesday December 05, 2023 @08:29PM (#38539414)

How do you run the binary if that's not OK? In order to install it, The binary gets copied from the installer (dmg/zip/app store/CD install media), and then to run it, it gets copied from your hard drive to RAM, so that's clearly okay in some circumstances. Furthermore, once it's on my hard drive, I can copy it over and over again in random places on my hard drive for funsies and the operating system will gladly cooperate. Once it's on my drive, I can go in with a hex editor and randomly change bytes for funsies. It's on my hard drive. Am I then not allowed to delete the program from my system? If I use shred to delete it, which will set the bytes in the file to zero, or format the hard drive, am I breaking the law?

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Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by ketzo on Tuesday December 05, 2023 @10:43PM (#38540257)

In my very limited understanding, distribution is the key.

It’s legal for Apple to distribute Apple binaries. It is not legal for someone else to distribute Apple binaries.

Copying a binary from installer to app folder: not distribution

Putting the binary on a USB and giving it to your buddy: gray area, not worth prosecuting, but maybe technically distribution

Uploading the binary to a GitHub repo titled “Apple binaries here”: obviously distribution

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Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by fragmede on Wednesday December 06, 2023 @12:14AM (#38540681)

Which is weird if you think about it. If I buy a car, give it a paint job, mount some LEDs, and a new sound system, I'm totally within my rights to sell it. I can't say that I'm Ford or Honda when selling this modified car, but I'm totally allowed to sell it.

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Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by chatmasta on Wednesday December 06, 2023 @12:38AM (#38540779)

Yes, and this analogy is even more valid than usual, because unlike most software where each binary is an exact copy of all the others, in this case each binary is actually unique to a device.

But it's more like a ticket, or an NFT. It's a unique blob that was sold to you. You should be able to transfer it.

Apple's best argument here might be that the blob is meant for one person, and distributing it this way is like sharing a ticket to the cinema between multiple people. I can't enter the cinema, then come outside and pass you the ticket so you can enter it too.

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Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by Shawnj2 on Wednesday December 06, 2023 @02:12AM (#38541220)

In that case the easy way out (and what plenty of Hackintosh/console hacking/emulation/etc. communities have done since the beginning of time) is to just download the file directly from Apple when the app starts up the first time or have an “import BOOT.bin here” button you use to activate the app. If someone can source the binary you need to get the app to work I think that’s DMCA legal.

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Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by zamadatix on Tuesday December 05, 2023 @09:05PM (#38539665)

Those are all fine but it's not the context of the copying in the discussed scenario.

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