Apple Offering 'Free' Updates to All Owners of Aperture, iWork, and iLife; Not Worried About Unethical Users

As part of its efforts to ensure that all eligible software owners are able to upgrade to the latest versions of its software on the Mac App Store, Apple is intentionally allowing users with any version of Aperture, iLife and iWork installed on their system to upgrade to the latest versions on the Mac App Store -- even illegally acquired or trial versions.

In order to ensure that no legitimate software owners are left behind, according to MacTrast, Apple has eliminated its legacy software update mechanism entirely and is instead pushing all software updates onto the Mac App Store.

According to a MacTrast source at Apple:

It’s no coincidence that Apple’s support site doesn’t have downloads for the new Aperture, iWork, and iLife updates. They aren’t in our Software Update system either – and there’s a good reason for that. With Mavericks, we have changed the way we distribute updates for legacy versions of our apps

Rather than maintain separate updates for these in addition to the Mac App Store versions of each app, Apple has decided to eliminate their legacy software update system for apps entirely. Instead, when Mavericks discovers legacy apps installed on your Mac, it provisions them as a Mac App Store purchase using your Apple ID. It saves us a lot of time, effort, and bandwidth. After the provision is complete, it will appear in your Mac App Store history as though you have purchased the Mac App Store version of the app.

While we are aware that this enables piracy of our apps for unethical users, Apple has never taken a strong stance or action against piracy in the past. We like to believe that our users are honest, even if that belief is in vain.

When the new apps were released on the Mac App Store, many users with legitimate copies were unable to upgrade to the latest versions, though many users who were having difficulties seem to be able to upgrade now.

As a result of Apple's changes, all users with older versions of Aperture, iWork or iLife installed -- even if acquired through less-than-ethical means -- should be able to upgrade to the latest versions through the Mac App Store.