German Mac Cloner Skirts Around OS X EULA
The tech world has seen nearly a year’s worth of legal volleyball between Apple and Mac clone maker Psystar. It’s been a tireless back and forth of he said, she said, involving anti-trust suits, copyright infringement and who knows what else. All that said, there’s yet to be an offical verdict, and while Psystar continues to sell machines, another Mac Clone maker has cropped up in Germany.
According to Ars Technica, the PearC (Apples, pears, geddit?) actually packs some pretty impressive specs. Starting at €499, the company offers a starter PearC with a variety of dual-cores, either a GeForce 7200GS or 8400GS and up to 750 GB HDD. The Advanced model comes with a Core 2 Quad processor, a Blu-ray burner and a GeForce 8400GS, 9800GT, or 9800GTX. Lastly, the Professional model packs a Core i7 processor, 1TB of storage as standard, and up to 12GB of RAM. All come with the option to install Mac OS X.
With Psystar still busy defending itself against Apple (a year of legal costs sort of starts to add up), you’d think other aspiring clone makers would wait to see how things pan out before putting their own wares on the market. Apparently not. TUAW reports that PearC's parent company, Hypermeganet, says there’s no legal way to review the Mac OS X End User License Agreement (EULA). We passed the original article onto a member of our German team and he said the company’s main argument is that since you can’t read the EULA before purchase, it’s not valid.
While the law no doubt only stands in Germany and Apple will almost certainly file suit anyway, we’re still really interested in seeing how this develops.
Check out Ars Technica and TUAW for more or less the same.
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I wish I understood the attraction to MAC anything.
wait so the eula isn't translated so they say its invalid correct me if i'm wrong.
@MJRSnyder: Nah, basically the company's argument is that since the EULA is sealed and the terms and conditions aren't visible before purchase, they're void.
There's also the argument that as a contract of adhesion that is unequal (meaning that all the terms benefit only one party and there is no benefit for the licensee) it could be declared unenforceable.
There's also the argument that as a contract of adhesion that is unequal (meaning that all the terms benefit only one party and there is no benefit for the licensee) it could be declared unenforceable.
WOW!!! Wouldn't the shit hit the fan if that happened. No EULA would be enforceable.
The saddest part about all this is that there are wannabes that want to run OSX on otherwise useful hardware
Well the OSX interface is more intuitive for some people, but definitely not for me. I prefer a KDE interface, but I gotta stick with windows for the games ^_^.
same with me, stick with windows when you game on your pc, there's nothing else like windows in gaming, i had my hackintosh for 1 year but my interest just subsides after learning how to use it on a personal level.
@MJRSnyder: Nah, basically the company's argument is that since the EULA is sealed and the terms and conditions aren't visible before purchase, they're void.
Germany has some very stringint consumer protection (And some major flaws) laws that make this very legal in Germany. I dont see it happening in any but a very few EU countires. But that doesnt mean that all of europe wont have their nice shiny pear computers (Reminds me of sims 2 lol) clones shipped in from Germany.
Good article.
good for them!
Duh... Thanks, Captain Obvious!
Seriously, their argument might work for a while. Like Curnel_D said, it might not make it far outside Germany and definitely not in the US. However, if the product lives to it's expectations, it could grow into something that might well be a legitimate mac competitor.
@MJRSnyder: Nah, basically the company's argument is that since the EULA is sealed and the terms and conditions aren't visible before purchase, they're void.
You mean that it's wrong to enforce rules on a consumer that was unaware of prior to purchase? **Cough**Spore**Cough**
KDE? Really? I love linux, but man I think both KDE and Gnome are pretty crappy interfaces compared to OSX and Windows.
This is definitely a fruit punch...No apples but pears?
If this works out for the German company, they don't need the US.
More customers in the EU, more money in the EU, besides, the EU is looking east, that is where the future is.
**Cough**Pretty much any software or service released since... Ever**Cough**
Reminds me of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" when Arthur realises his house is about to be demolished:
"But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."
"On display? I had to go down to a cellar."
I wouldn't be surprised if the EULA is engraved on a silver platter, in a safe, guarded by a Leopard.
A Snow Leopard.