it's a MAC address... the computer is a Mac
the words "steal" when talking about this type of thing are a bit overzealous- Apple didn't "steal" OSX from "Linux"- it's simply based off a Linux kernel (darwin I think?) The rest of the code (for the GUI and so forth) they added themselves, as far as I'm aware.
This is similar to the whole MS stole windows from Apple, apple stole from xerox, etc etc-
they didn't "steal"- they saw neat features, and implemented them on their own. Apple didn't duplicate the xerox star code, they duplicated the functionality- and MS didn't duplicate the Apple GUI on the PC, they duplicated the functionality (well, they tried too... it took a few versions
). Saying they "stole" it is to undermine the vast number of man-hours that both companies (MS and Apple) employees spent writing their own versions.
In a similar vein, why does nobody say that MS word is stolen from WordStar? Or that WordStar itself is simply a stolen and enhanced version of EDIT, or e, or that OpenOffice is some kind of bastardized version of VIM?
No, it's the ideas they "stole"... which, as I said, is a bit of harsh wording.
if a car catches fire, and one passenger breaks the window to escape- and the other passengers do the same- can that first passenger sue the others for stealing his idea? Probably not.
The first person to think of an idea is hardly ever the first person to implement it, anyway.
