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I am working with a company where a person had their MBP updated to 10.8 using a copy that was bought on one users account and installed on 3 machines. The person who bought this copy 10.8 has since left the company (on bad terms) and is non-responsive to my emails/calls.
Is there a way to change accounts so that the user can do OS updates? Do we have to start over with a properly installed copy?
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..so... the Update was purchased by a private person on their personal account, and then illegally copied to other Macs, which are not licensed for the software ?
Ick. All the more reason for a centralized licensing control.
(My company had a related disaster back in the late 1990's. They hired a bunch of college kids to manage a large rollout of Windows NT systems. The kids went and installed a bunch of unlicensed software on the machines. When we found out, we fired them. And one little genius bastard then 'turned us in' to the Business Software Alliance. He got a 'whistleblower's fee' of around $20K, while we had to pay almost $1M in fines and lawyer's fees. For the work that he and his cohort did, which was in violation of our policies, procedures, and the direction they were given. )
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That is the reality now and I need to make it right. Any ideas?
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Unfortunately, you probably have to buy new copies
of the OS and other apps to have updates that you can access.
The more important thing is to get all useful data files off the machines in case they need to be nuked and paved.
I hope its not too big a bill for you.. some apps can be pricey!
If you have a different account which you can revert an older OS
that is a possibility too. then buy the new OS on that different account when money is available.
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The only "app" in question is 10.8 and it is on 3 machines (as far as I have been told). We may just buy 3 copies this morning and associate the machines with the proper accounts so that they can update the software in the future.
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Can't you just download the updates from support.apple.com and install them?
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I found that this was NOT a 10.8 issue, but an issue with iPhoto that was bought on another account and it was an update to the newest version. 10.8 updates just fine (phew!).
I will get iPhoto for these users and be done with it.
