“In a move that could profoundly alter the face of the personal computer market, upstart Mac cloner Psystar on Thursday filed a countersuit against Silicon Valley heavyweight Apple, claiming that Steve Jobs’ company employs technology, dubious licensing schemes and high-pitched marketing campaigns to illegally destroy competition in the Mac market,” Paul McDougall reports for InformationWeek.
“In doing so, Psystar claims, Apple has violated Sherman antitrust rules and other U.S. laws. A Psystar victory in court could pave the way for other PC makers, including big vendors like Dell, HP and Lenovo, to enter the Mac market and offer alternatives to Microsoft Windows PCs,” McDougall reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, if that happened worldwide productivity would surge to historic levels. Most of the IT guys would be out of work, though.
McDougall continues, “Psystar claims in court documents filed in U.S. District Court for San Francisco that Apple ‘has engaged in certain anticompetitive behavior and/or other actions that are in violation of the public policy underlying the federal copyright laws.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll have some of whatever Psystar and their lawyers are smokin’. It is the last Friday afternoon in August, after all.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
“I’m going to sue Apple for using an apple in their logo.”
It’s been done.
Then the same can be said of the XBox and PS3 markets. This will be thrown out of court rather quickly.
The case and claims by Psystar are without merit as Apple’s role and place in the PC Market has been fully defined and accepted by the courts from pervious litigation (Microsoft’s Anti-trust cases). Apple’s systems are very competitively priced in the PC market, can you build yourself a cheaper system with off the shelf parts, of course. Is that what Psystar is doing with there Open Computer without a doubt.
Quality, customer support, customs design, and manufacturing cost real money as well as part of the cost of a Macintosh system is the MacOS and it’s R&D;cost, a full retail license for Vista Ultimate is about $300.00. Psystar is buying what amounts to upgrade License of Mac OS X for $129.00 and selling them as a full license. Psystar is also violating the Hackintosh EMF License terms that they use to run the MacOS on the generic PC Hardware.
Psystar choose to violate not just Apple’s License but, the Freeware Hackintosh EMF License to make and sell their Cheap Mac clones. They did it without principle or due diligence. Apple as called them to the carpet and the options were flee or fight.
They picked fight and got a law firm that has no real desire to go into court and argue the case. The law firm for Psystar is going to attempt to negotiate an exit for the Brothers that will leave their wallets mostly intact so, they can move on to their next get rich quick scheme, and the law firm can get their pay day too.
Apple Legal team are sharks in the kiddy pool with this case, I’d expect Psystar will be eaten alive. The Brothers will need deep pockets, a rich sugar daddy, a law firm working on contingence or a miracle cash machine to pay for the litigation, If their is no settlement before the court date it will be a long and very, very expensive lesson for the Brothers. If there is a settlement don’t expect to see Psystar selling anything that might even be used to run the Mac OS on it.
In the opinion of two experts I’ve talked with Psystar’s case and arguments have no merit and borders on frivolous.
That being said, everyone hoping that Psystar will win somehow should really be asking yourself if Psystar wins will it really be good for the PC Industry the answer is of course is no, Apple will simply pull the plug on Mac OS for their PC’s and start shipping the systems with Microsoft Windows, because Apple simply can not compete with Microsoft in the OEM OS space, it does not have the resources or the cash.
Apple would eventually migrate it’s customer base from the Macintosh to a new platform most likely running OS XI, and PA Semi designed processors.
Somebody sue Psystar for cornering the market on idiocy.
Screw Psystar, I want what Demon is smoking.
In order for Microsoft to destroy Apple in an open Mac market, Microsoft would first have to make a competitive OS.
Like that’s going to happen in the next 7 years.
What their smoking is probably 10 to 15 percent THC.
And I have my checkbook. How much pretty please
Mr. McMullen’s scenario would not work in the long term because of the inevitable hardware legacy issues that would result.
Can you imagine trying to keep a start-of-the-art OS start-of-the-art and still keep on functional on five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten year old hardware?
I can only assume Mr. McMullen didn’t think of this at the time he wrote it because of his personal situation at the time.
“These lawyers must not have graduated from law school yet.”
You said it brother. These folks are fools!!!!!
TO MDN: please find out how to get a little of what Psystar is smoking for your MDN Readers.
Much appreciated.
Apple avoids “monopoly status” by manufacturing computers. This case could have merit if Apple didn’t exclusively produce their own hardware (viz., their PC line). Because they make Macs, their also make operating systems that allow their operation. And because of that, there is no anticompetitive practice going on. To claim such, would be to claim that Nokia has to create a version of their OS to run on Sony phones. Or that Samsung has to create a version of their OS to run on Toshiba LCD televisions…
Just because Mac OS X can be hacked to run on other platforms (PCs), doesn’t mean it was designed for such purposes. Psystar’s argument only works if you assume such… and that is not the case.
I vote for a law that makes all people (lawyers, juries, and judges) who award money to dumb illogical people pay the amount they award to these dumb people out of their own pocket. That should at least make people think twice about the case.
What’s interesting to me is the question about what exactly makes a Mac a Mac. Psystar (interesting play on words for a name, no?) seems to be arguing that hardware is not relevant. It seems to be largely a psychological thing. They wish to “liberate” the OS as in the M$ model yet fail to realize that this isn’t really the whole story. What makes a Mac a Mac is the whole thingamajigger, as so many of us have been saying for so long. It’s Apple’s personality and all the little details made just for us. It’s the difference between a Hallmark card stamped out for any old mom or dad versus the one your kid makes for you when art class decided to focus on “the ones you care about most.” Try as they might, no one will make a Mac. To make something so good, they’d have to care about what they made more than what profit it may bring them.
Psystar’s shot at becoming a star will fade quickly. They have no real argument, despite their obvious grand sense of who they think they are. That’s the point, though. They’re manipulating. They’re getting attention. They’ve gotten something out of this already because they can’t be that naive. Psychological stars. Yeah, whatever.
But hey, maybe it’s getting somebody laid. Chances are there’s a scraggly Zune user who thinks someone’s a hunk for fighting against mean ol’ Apple. I’d say “more power to ’em,” but if this is the best they can do, even scraggly Zune users walk away at some point.
MDW “light,” as in “the end of the tunnel.”
Demon should be an analyst since he gets his facts from the same place the analyst do, out of his butt.
the judge should jail these buffoons for contempt, and frivolous lawsuits
I’m cheering for Psystar. Macs to the masses. MDN was right, Windows isn’t good enough. What is there to fear of the outcome if Psystar wins?
Hypothetical: Let’s say for a moment they do win and it becomes a precedent for OS X to be sold on any computer. Soon, the HPs, Dells, and Lenovos are suddenly shipping with OS X and not Windows. People start using OS X and love it. Harmony ensues. Within years OS X has nearly phased out Windows in businesses and academia everywhere. Diseases are eradicated, the quality of human society improves globally. Apple continues to make its own computers and continues to improve OS X. A percentage of people still pay for Apple hardware because it’s branded better, but at the same time Apple works with governments and organizations to improve technology everywhere. Years later mankind has colonized Mars and continues expanded interstellar travel with OS X powered spacecraft.
All this, because Psystar was “thinking differently”. Here’s to the crazy ones, because those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world… COULD be the ones that do.
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I fail to see how the Mac zealot mind works. On one hand it desires that sort of communist utopia in worshipping the Mac, but on the other hand it prides itself as part of a tiny guild of separatists, confederates if you will. Attempting to resist the very change it wishes to create.
Sometimes I think you zealots think Apple would turn into Microsoft if that happened, if it’s not happening already.
Do you people pride yourselves in Apple or in using the decent OS that is Mac OS X and empowering the masses to do the same?
“marketing campaigns to illegally destroy competition in the Mac market”
What Mac market? Apple invented the Mac market. They have no monopoly in the COMPUTER market. That’s like saying that Dell has a monopoly on computers that are called Dell.
What a bunch of loosers. I hope they loose their shorts.
I will construct and sell a “Ferrarim” super car and charge Ferrari if they try to forbid me to do that! ;(
Psystar to win. After all, all they are doing is seeking the right to build and sell modern universal PC hardware… exactly as Apple build and sell, and in competition with Apple and the modern universal PC hardware line it calls ‘Macintosh’.
Judge to throw Apple’s case out of court in a day.
@ws
You have to remember it is no longer Apple Computer Company, it is Apple Inc. When the “mac” was a IBM ppc exclusive domain it was Apple Computer. Now we have Intel based chipsets which opens up a whole new architecture in the build. Same as all the other computers that are out there. Just another pc in the eyes of technology. One of quality but never the less another personel computer like the rest of the masses. I often wondered why Microsoft stopped supplying the discs that used to be included in the purchase of those windows machines. Just maybe it could be that once you sell them, they are no longer yours. Maybe there is exclusion? Look at the deal with AT&T;and tell me that is the only phone service available in the United States. It is just a phone no matter how many bells and whistles you attach for crying out loud.
I wonder if Steve has learned from his capital mistake in 1984. Imagine what would happen with Mac OS if you get the clones back on stage. It would mean the end of windows and a predominance for the next 20 years! Let the competition start.
“Apple ‘has engaged in certain anticompetitive behavior”
Yea right, that’s why Psystar illegally re-selling OSX, and OSX Server, illegally reverse engineering the code to produce updates, NOT asking Apple for permission to use any of its intellectual property before going into business for itself and claiming it is an Apple compatible system. Just the word Apple in the name is a copyright violation. There’s a big difference with anticompetitive and down right STEALING! I don’t see anyone making Playstation 3 clones, Xbox clones, or Wii clones? Is that because Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft are being Anticompetitive? NOT!!
Apple like these other companies has the right to license or NOT license there products to others. They R&D;, design, build, market, ship, and support all of there products themselves. They outsource some factories to build there products but all under Apples supervision and guidance. Perfectly Legal and not anticompetitive. Your case is stupid and will fail miserably.
“Sure, let Apple charge $1000 per computer to license the MAC OS.”
They’ve already made their decision on that. They license Mac OS in a box. All that’s being argued is whether that license can be allowed to force the bundling of a Mac sale.
“Gee. this is like Yves St. Laurent being sued because they illegally restrict the Yves St.Laurent market by actively prosecuting counterfeiters. OL!”
No, it’ like Yves Saint Laurent saying if you buy an Yves Saint Laurent perfume you’re only allowed to wear it with Yves Saint Laurent clothing, even though there is nothing about the former that requires you use the latter.
“Quality, customer support, customs design, and manufacturing cost real money as well as part of the cost of a Macintosh system is the MacOS and it’s R&D;cost”
Fine, increase the price of a standalone Mac OS X license to reflect that. Don’t subsidize Mac OS X standalone licenses sales from Apple hardware revenues. That actually IS illegal so not an argument Apple is likely to make.
“Psystar is buying what amounts to upgrade License of Mac OS X for $129.00 and selling them as a full license. “
If it “Amounts to that”, Apple should have put those words somewhere in the marketing materials, on the box or in the license agreement, but they didn’t. So it’s a full version.
“To claim such, would be to claim that Nokia has to create a version of their OS to run on Sony phones. “
Different again, since the Mac is industry standard hardware which Apple does not own the fundamental design of. No-one’s asking Apple to create a special anything, or even support the OS on the clone hardware. All they’re saying is it’s illegal for Apple, who produces industry standard hardware designed to an industry standard spec using an different but again completely open BIOS spec to stop other people doing the same and running legally purchased Mac OS X boxed product purchased at retail on it.
“The law firm for Psystar is going to attempt to negotiate an exit for the Brothers that will leave their wallets mostly intact”
You’re right, but the law firm will be negotiating a solution which is roughly equal to the percentage chance of Apple losing (even if small) times the cost of Apple losing (very large if there is legal precedent allowing mac clones, as Apple’s overpriced hardware business will be decimated) leaving the Psytar brothers rich and Apple’s Mac business intact.
@ Denny
Apple should charge $1000 to lisence OS to each computer, because if you think about it, most desktop PC’s are about $700-$900 and even with the os you are still getting a cheaper computer than the mac pro, it could be the mid range desktop we have been waiting for!
“… since the Mac is industry standard hardware which Apple does not own the fundamental design of.”
Wrong, and this is where your argument fails.
The Mac uses “industry standard” components in it’s (Apple’s) design of the Mac. The uses of “industry standard” components” is not the same as some sort of basic “fundamental design” of a computer. Apple and every other major PC maker has patents covering their computer engineering.
To use a car analogy, there is a basic “fundamental design” to the automobile, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is allowed to build and sell a Ford (Dodge, Altima, Chevy or what ever).
“from each according to their ability (Apple) to each according to their need (Psystar)” –
a definition of the essence of communism, quoted from a book well worth reading, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
I wish all these Apple fanbois would get real. Technology has brought us the UPC (Universal Personal Computer). Apple – or no one else – is gonna be allowed to hold back technology just so they can protect its monopoly position. Apple is building, advertising and selling UPCs and is readily using the names of Windows, Linux and OS X as a major selling point of the UPC. All Psystar is doing is asking for the same rights as Apple has to make and sell UPCs.
If you want to use automobile analogies in this modern age – think of every car being perfectly able to run in three gears… but Ford attempt to stop ALL cars other than its own using the third gear… because it engineered the technology for the third gear – and refuse to even licence it… so that Ford cars have an unfair advantage.
Psystar to win… FREE the OS!