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Comment by borism | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps Snow Leopard marks all users as guests during install (with extended attribute or something), then when you have used Guest account starts to delete all guest files/folders.

BTW, I would expect it to be in some shell/Apple script anyway, so Open/Closed Source argument doesn't really stand here.

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Remember you don't have a right to modify a script simple because you can. Usually modification of a copyright work is forbidden and I'll bet Apple strictly disclaim any ability to modify which would otherwise be fair use.

Have you heard of a little something called Fair Use? If you were to modify one of Apple's system utilities and then distribute it, you could easily run afoul of copyright. Simply making a local modification in-place, however, is no more illegal than installing a new hardware driver, changing your shell prompt, or downloading and using Firefox in place of Safari.

Now, if you changed some piece of the system in order to circumvent FairPlay, or some other DRM component, then you might be running afoul of the DMCA. Not the same thing as copyright violation, however.

Apple might dispute this given their position on iPhone jailbreaking.

(I'm not saying you're incorrect, but being right doesn't make it any cheaper to defend yourself against a dedicated opponent with deep pockets.)

One name. Jon Lech Johansen.

Um, those last two words in my sentence ... plus you could have at least got me on "it's probably APSL actually".

yes, but you don't know which program calls this script and what for.

But you can find out! http://opensource.apple.com/release/mac-os-x-1061/

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