Last week Apple filed a copyright infringement suit against Psystar, alleging the company “misappropriated Apple’s proprietary software and intellectual property.” That’s no shocker, but that Apple is asking for, along with damages and an injunction, that every Psystar Mac OS-based OpenComputer be recalled, could turn into more than just the usual lawsuit.
Psystar began selling the Open Computer in April, which uses, according to Apple, a modified version of its OS X. Since Psystar launched the PC everyone has been waiting for Apple’s suit. But the terms of the suit could have serious consequences for other companies who might be thinking about selling PCs using Apple’s OS and for Apple, see CNET’s analysis of the case and its possible outcomes.
In short: if Apple wins the suit and all clones are returned and destroyed, then any other copycatters waiting out there will have learned a discouraging lesson, but if Apple wins the suit and instead of recalling the clones, the court decides Psystar owes Apple some sort of licensing deal and fees, then we could see an army of Mac OS clones hitting the market.
The full text of Apple’s claim is available, here.
To quote Yoda “Begun this Clone War has”. I am pulling for Psystar here – can you image if you bought one of these and had to send it back because they lost a court ruling? That would suck. Apple is making TONS of money and these things and homebrewed Hackintoshes are no major threat to them. I hope we do see a “flood” of Mac clones hit the market at these prices – maybe then Apple will wise up and offer a decent machine (not the Mini) for under a grand for those of us who do not live in places where the average salary is more than $30,000 a year.
“if Apple wins the suit and instead of recalling the clones, the court decides Psystar owes Apple some sort of licensing deal and fees, then we could see an army of Mac OS clones hitting the market.”
Your logic here is baffling. If Apple wins the suit (and that’s pretty much a slam dunk), they will be shutting down the Psystar operation, and recovering the machines. They will not be collecting licensing fees. Apple doesn’t have any interest in selling OS X as a standalone product. If Apple lost the suit (and that’s not at all likely), then some sort of licensing plan might be worked out, or Apple could just stop selling OS X updates in a retail package, and just distribute them through downloads. Ano of course these updates would most likely not function on any non Apple machines. Problem solved.
You’re all big ass nerds