A judge ruled that the Apple must unlock one MacBook from a woman who claims to have received it by donation. The case ended up in court after the lawyer Caroline Yuri Loureiro Sagava if you find yourself unable to use the device due to the well-known activation block present in Apple devices.
In October last year, she filed an urgent guardianship request requiring “the unlocking and reinstallation of the system” on a MacBook Air that was purchased in 2017 and donated to her by the previous owner in 2022 — five years after the its acquisition.
At the time, the judge Luis Fernando Via granted the request for urgent relief, considering the documentary evidence presented by the lawyer, at least “in summary cognition”, as sufficient to attest that she received the device from her brother-in-law as a donation and that “she did not have access to the system due to the request of the personal password”.
Sagava, who is acting on his own behalf in the case, alleges that the activation password was lost by the former owner and that Apple refused to recover it due to the non-presentation of the invoice for the product, which, in the words of the judge, was “misplaced by the considerable time lapse since its acquisition”.
According to him, “it is absolutely believable that, over the years, consumers will forget logins/passwords to access the countless systems with which they have contact in an era marked by the use of technology”, as well as that they “neither keep invoices, for extended periods, of all purchased consumer goods”.
The urgent decision was also justified due to the danger in delay (danger of delay). For the magistrate, the author of the action could be harmed by the delay in gaining access to the device.
Since there is no indication that the plaintiff received the computer mentioned in the complaint by dubious means, the restriction of its access makes it impossible, in an unjustified way, the normal enjoyment of the property, even impacting the exercise of her profession as a lawyer.
Now, on February 26, the judge confirmed the urgent injunction and partially upheld the plaintiff’s requests, condemning Apple to unlock and reinstall macOS on the computer within a period of up to 15 days, “under penalty of converting the liability for damages”.
As the decision was published on May 1, there are only two days left for this deadline to expire. Let’s follow this process…
via Connected World