Apple and would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar file summary judgement requests

“On Thursday, both Apple and Psystar filed separate motions, with their respective supporting evidence, requesting a summary judgment from Judge William Alsup in a San Francisco court. Two hearings have been set for Nov. 12, and the outcome could determine whether the trial will take place in January,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.

“Apple has requested that Alsup rule that Psystar infringed on its copyrights and violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in its sale of unofficial third-party machines running Mac OS X. Apple has asserted that Psystar’s circumvention of its disc protection methods for its operating system is in violation of the law,” Hughes reports.

“Psystar has asked the judge to consider a list of evidence submitted in its own request for a summary judgment. The evidence includes the end user license agreements for both Mac OS X 10.5 and Mac OS X 10.6, as well as excerpts from depositions from numerous Apple executives, including Senior Vice President of Worldwide Produt Marketing Phil Schiller,” Hughes reports.

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: The neverending farce.

8 Comments

  1. @MDN: It ain’t never-ending if they’re seeking a summary judgment, which could go against them, next month as opposed to waiting for a trial starting in January.

    @Regular Reader: Psytar’s case rests on the question of whether a software EULA is an enforceable contract or not. In a typical contract your signature is gathered. With a software EULA it is not.

  2. @Tommy Boy
    Thanks! I didn’t know what they were basing their case on. But if I remember my contract law class right (yes, I honestly took one), you specify any type of contract acceptance that you want. Be it a signature, a click, a special token, whatever. As long as it’s clearly stated what it is in the contract, once you’ve accepted it’s legal. I think clicking an I Agree button before installation is pretty darn clear…for most.

  3. I love Apple, but I’m waiting for the day that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is taken all the way to the Supreme Court and declared unconstitutional. DMCA totally abrogates the rights of fair use defined in the US Constitution.

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