Psystar Back in the Fight Against Apple

By Marcus Yam
published

Psystar gets new lawyers and is ready to fight 'guns blazin'.

Psystar, the most publicized Mac cloner of all, appears to be back with a second wind and truly prepared to fight Apple in court.

"Open PC" maker Psystar takes PC hardware and through special software is able to make it compatible with Mac OS X. This obviously set Apple's legal team in action, who believes that the installation of Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware is a violation of the end user license agreement.

Psystar appeared to be avoiding confrontation with Apple when it filed for bankruptcy protection, but then the courts decided to allow the legal battle to proceed. Now Psystar is back and ready to fight – or at least it seems so from a posting on its company blog.

"Everyone here values openness. And that’s how we’re going to fight Apple: in public. We have nothing to hide. We buy hundreds of copies of OS X legally, from retailers like Amazon and Apple itself," the blog read. "We’re probably one of Apple’s biggest customers. Then we install these copies of OS X, along with kernel extensions that we wrote in-house, on computers that we buy and build. Then we resell the package to people like you. That’s it."

Psystar doesn't believe that the copyright on Mac OS X gives Apple the right to dictate which hardware it is permitted to run on, just as how it cannot tell developers what type of software to write – which suggests that Psystar sees itself as a Mac developer. Either way, the company now seems better ready to fight with new legal counsel.

"Now we’ve changed lawyers to better reflect who we are. Camara & Sibley LLP of Houston, Texas, has officially become our primary legal counsel in our ongoing litigation with Apple," the blog continued. "A new trial date has been set for January 11, 2010, in federal court in San Francisco. As we move toward trial, we’ll be keeping you informed about the arguments, the evidence, and what’s going on in the case. And, come January, Camara & Sibley will be ready to fight for Psystar, guns blazin’."

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
54 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cekasone
    Even though I would never use OS X, I am happy to see Psystar putting up a fight against the big dudes. Apple just wants to be the only company out there providing consumers with OS X. You don't see Microsoft getting all pissed when people buy Windows and install it on a custom built machine.
    Reply
  • megamanx00
    Sure hope Psystar wins. I don't like OSX myself, but I like Apple trying to force people to use it's generic overprice PC hardware even less.
    Reply
  • Parrdacc
    Go Psystar!
    Reply
  • That's because that's what Microsoft wants you to do. They couldn't care less what hardware you run it on.
    Reply
  • marraco
    I hope Psytar wins.

    Forcing the consumer to buy product A with product B is a-moral.
    Reply
  • griffed88
    meh, I don't really care which way it goes. If i'm gonna by a computer with OSX, im gonna buy it from apple. there is a reason why most of their computers are so stable, all the hardware is the same for the most part so their OS works perfectly with the specified hardware.

    So even if Psystar wins, which I don't think it will due to the EULA stating that you can't install OSX on non-apple hardware, I still wouldn't buy one from Psystar. Their prices aren't that much cheaper anyway.
    Reply
  • jw_37
    Hey hypocrites, remember when MS was sued because they strong armed PC manufacturers like Dell, HP, etc to sell only Windows?
    Reply
  • Miharu
    Apple build a closed market.
    Banning from IPhone Apple Store every software making competition with his own OS. Banning Google and others big name.

    Something with the Mac Hardware. It's a PC with specified hardware. Specified hardware that you pay over the current market price.

    I think Apple build an Antitrust case with theirs products and we should stop them.

    If you read all article about Apple on Toms, you can see... Apple trying to stop every user to use their software incorrectly (for them).
    Actualy, if you can go somewhere else then "Apple Store" is BAD.

    Basicly, if you jailbreak your IPhone, your a big hacker and you have destroyed their integrity and their phone tower.... Next step, they'll send policeman after people who have an IPhone jailbreaked...

    Apple is actualy a worst Antitrust case than ever.
    Reply
  • Montezuma
    I have wondered why the EU has been raping Microsoft with all these "anti-trust" suits, but they do nothing against Apple and their forcing(or attempting to force) customer to use their hardware with software the customer purchased(namely, the Mac OS).

    If Microsoft did that, the EU would go into a full fledged "emo" rage. Hey, I just found a copy of OSX, I think it is time to install it on my non-Apple machine.
    Reply
  • WheelsOfConfusion
    montezumaI have wondered why the EU has been raping Microsoft with all these "anti-trust" suits, but they do nothing against Apple and their forcing(or attempting to force) customer to use their hardware with software the customer purchased(namely, the Mac OS).It's not OSX customers that are being targeted by Apple, that's why you don't see them shutting down the various homebrew Hackintosh groups and hobbyists. What they're going after is other companies reselling their product against Apple's licensing terms, for a profit. Imagine if someone was buying up a bunch of DVD movies, transferring them to VHS, and then selling those tapes for a profit. That's kind of what Psystar's doing with OSX.
    I dislike Apple's attitude about OSX only shipping on Apple hardware, but I also don't think Psystar has a leg to stand on in defending what they're doing either. For me this is kind of like watching two jerks get into a fight.
    Reply