“A Doral company founded by two South Florida brothers has been sued by technology giant Apple, which is attacking the Mac clones the brothers started selling in April,” Evan S. Benn reports for The Miami Herald.
“Attorneys for Apple are accusing Psystar Corp., owned by Rudy and Robert Pedraza, of copyright and trademark infringement and breach of contract for building and selling ‘cloned’ computers that run on Apple’s Leopard operating system,” Benn reports. “In addition to monetary damages, Apple wants a court to force the Pedraza brothers to stop selling their clones and to recall every computer that has already been shipped to Psystar’s customers.”
“In an interview with The Miami Herald in May, Rudy Pedraza talked about eventually selling the Mac clones in retail stores and moving into a bigger headquarters. He compared what he and his brother were doing to ‘the Boston Tea Party of computing,'” Benn reports. “‘We are challenging the establishment to make the market better for everyone else,’ Pedraza said.”
“But Apple’s licensing agreement prohibits using its software on non-Apple computers… ‘Apple had to sue,’ attorney Randy Friedberg said Monday from Olshan Law in New York, where he handles intellectual property and technology matters. ‘They’re very protective of their IP and their brand,'” Benn reports. “‘I think Apple’s goal was to say: ‘Don’t screw with us,” Friedberg said. ‘And I do believe they’ll end up putting these kids out of business.'”
Full article here.
I don’t know why they did not just sell PCs that were easily converted into Mac clones by the user. Why go as far as they did and include the software?
Rudy Pedraza has fingers in lots of pies:
“Why go as far as they did and include the software?”
Delusions of grandeur.
I’m still convinced these “kids” are being directed/funded/used by someone with a keen interest in denting Apple’s bottom line – particularly considering how many computers Apple’s been selling lately.
I’m also convinced that the PA Semi acquisition, while primarily aimed at helping differentiate future generations of iPhones from the hardware of their competitors, will also come into play down the road with Macs, to prevent this kind of unauthorized use of OS X.
These guys went about doing it the wrong way. They should have done what BSOD said.
How would selling these POS computers to the masses going to help anybody?
Why do people keep thinking that attacking the only really good computer company is good for everyone. They basically are trying to force it to become another Micros*** like company.
When you steal others IP you are no better then a punk connivence store hold-up thug. It’s not about making the Personal Computer Market better or even about sticking it to a multinational corporation. It’s about doing something illegal to generate publicity for your new small business and making a business of stealing other’s IP. They stole Apple’s IP and they stole the creator of the Hackintosh EMF emulator’s IP. Which means they’ll steal their customer’s money in the end too.
I admire business people that can generate hype for their business that’s why Sir Richard Branson is a great businessman. These kiddies however, don’t understand that doing a Branson stunt and stealing a companies IP is not even in the same ball park. Sir Richard Branson is the 236th richest person according to Forbes’ 2008 list of billionaires. So the kiddies will get a clue Apple is about to make them the 236th poorest people in the world.
Pedraza compared what he and his brother were doing to ‘the Boston Tea Party of computing,’ Benn reports. “We are challenging the establishment to make the market better for everyone else.”
One small catch. California is a LOT closer to Florida these days than Boston was to London.
I find it amazing how much of this old, tired misinformation is still out there, judging my the comments on the article. OS X is proprietary? It is the OS that IBM threw away? Holy crap! What’s next? The old one-button mouse argument?
Agree with BSOD. If Psysters only offered a ‘service’ to help hack your generic PCs to install OS X, both of which the customers buy on their own separately – h/w from any h/w vendor and OS from Apple, with fair warning to their customers they are violating the written contract of their purchase, they would have a leg to stand on.
What Psystar does will not help Apple fans and customers in general. Apple can very well make it so only way to buy OS X is pre-bundled on a Mac h/w. Make you register. Then the only way to get OS upgrade DVD is to submit proof you own a Mac, or bring it to an Apple Store. Apple knows that procedure sucks for customer, therefore the availability of OS X media off the shelf.
The unspoken, underlying argument people choose sides on, I think, is that the full price of OS X software should be enough to compensate Apple for the development of OS X. I tend to think the value of OS X is worth more than the listed price, just supplemented by Apple’s whole product sale. What if Apple just say, OK, we’ll start selling the OS X alone for $799 and the bare MacBook Pro at $1200 like anti-Mac camps think the h/w is worth, so the total MBP still starts at $1999? How is Pystar going to build a $600 Mac clone then?
Even if Psystar wins in court, what make them think Dell, Gateway, HP, Best Buy, Frys, WalMart (through some Chinese manufacturer) will not all start building Mac clones tomorrow, at a much bigger discount and distribution channels, and wipe them out anyway? Idiots.
One simple market economy argument people don’t want to mention is that if you want the price to do down on Apple products, just buy more of them, from Apple. That’s what happened with iPhones and iPods.
These guys could’ve been heroes in the open Hackint0sh community if they actually acted on real principle, but instead they are greedy. They remind me of the eMachines back in the hight of Tech Boom and iMacs imitation frenzy. Nobody will miss them when they’re gone.
Typical Apple. Crush the competition in court with senseless litigation. Can’t innovate? Litigate.
Hey Apple, is this any way to deal with a creative, young, nimble competitor? How about trying a little something called innovation, design quality and attention to end user experience? Microsoft gets it. That’s why they’re the market leader. These brash upstarts at Psystar deserve a chance.
I do find it surprising that these guys think the market demands inexpensive clones of Crapple’s flashy Windows Vista wannabe toy computers. Wouldn’t that be a clone of a clone? I suggest they license Windows Vista and dump the MAC OS. With 97.5% market share there’s plenty of room for Psystar in the Windows pool.
Your potential. Our passion.™
Man a lot of the people commenting on that article really don’t know much and are missing out on the better stuff. Too bad for them they don’t deserve it anyway.
Boston Tea Party? Maybe they need to study history a bit more. Poor analogy as well as an insult to the early Americans who protested taxation without representation. I like the “store hold-up thug” analogy better. Morons.
@Gabriel
“I’m still convinced these “kids” are being directed/funded/used by someone with a keen interest in denting Apple’s bottom line – particularly considering how many computers Apple’s been selling lately.”
I think that the brothers are hoping a sponsor with deep pockets will turn up and back them in a legal fight with Apple. I don’t thing they have the brains to get a sponsor upfront.
They’re just a couple of dumb kids with no experience in business. They didn’t even know they couldn’t call their machines “Open Mac” when they first started advertising them. It amazes me how many people go into business without realizing they can’t make money with something that somebody else holds the rights to.
Come on, we ALL knew this was coming…
Oh! Okay, I see, these are just an innocent pair of kooky, wild-eyed kids, trying to help the computing world and society in general!
Aaaaah, that’s better!
Yeah, this PR facade is way better than the facts, which are that these guys are a pair of criminals who hoped that they’d get away with stealing, cheapening, and profiting from someone else’s property, and then inflicting the poorly running crap on their paying customers.
Somehow, the truth doesn’t have the same ‘popular heroes’ cache as the Pedraza’s carefully contrived image as a pair of dew-eyed do-gooders who are “challenging the establishment to make the market better for everyone else”.
No Gentlemen, you are not a pair of Robin Hoods.
You are just hoods.
Apple, please bury them. Deep.
No mercy. No prisoners.
Zune Tang
I had been given to understand that while in the process of defecation you had been consumed by a herd of ravenous swine, I guess not, since I see you have posted your usual drivel. Oh well we can always hope that you will lose a lot of weight and fall thru your anus and hang yourself.
Cant license and produce a genuine product and make a profit… steal someone else’s work.
cant create a viable product from your own efforts… hack an Iphone and brag about your skills to unlock one.
not much better than shop lifting just stealing from a bigger store.
Miscreants come in all flavors
From the article:
The Pedrazas have until July 28 to respond to the litigation. Attempts to reach the brothers for comment Monday via telephone and e-mail were unsuccessful. A call to their Miami attorney was not immediately returned.
This type of thing does not happen when a defendant has a defense ready. Defendants who are ready to fight a lawsuit don’t just disappear off the radar. Their attorney would have made a statement to the press the day the suit was filed.
Maybe they’ll surprise us and say something before July 28th, but right now, it seems pretty clear that these geniuses never expected Apple to call their bluff and are not at all prepared.
——RM
“Pedraza’d”:
v. intr.
To be completely corn-holed by Apple Inc. for being naive dipshits.
Gee Zune Thang, haven’t seen you for a while. Now I know why.
Apple is fiercely controlling its monopoly
Awww a couple of early 20s who built ’em because they could.
Here’s the REAL flaw in their biz strategy. If a miracle happens and they prevail in court.. they’ll be competing with Dell. Who will probably have lower costs and quieter fans.
My dream business is to host craps games in my house for real money. The law is a biatch.
Hope they’re having fun while it lasts.