“Apple Inc. last week added new charges to the federal lawsuit it filed nearly five months ago against a Florida clone maker, claiming that Psystar Corp. broke antipiracy defenses that lock Apple’s operating system to its own hardware,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.
“In a filing dated Nov. 26, Apple amended its original suit of July after it had ‘discovered additional information,'” Keizer reports. “Among the additions is a new accusation — that Psystar violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by dodging copy-protection technologies Apple uses to protect Mac OS X.”
“In its just-revised complaint, Apple also alleged that Psystar was not acting alone, although it did not name names. “Persons other than Psystar are involved in Psystar’s unlawful and improper activities described in this amended complaint,” Apple said. “The true names or capacities, whether individual, corporate or otherwise, of these persons are unknown to Apple. Consequently they are referred to herein as John Does 1 through 10.” Apple said it would reveal the John Does’ names when it uncovered them,” Keizer reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: By the time Apple’s finished, you’ll be able to pick up Psystar with a whisk broom and a dustpan.
This can only be a good thing.
not for Pystar……..
As a Floridian, I’d like some good news to come out of here at some point…
Now that’s interesting. I’ll bet there were long discussions in the Apple boardroom about whether or not to use the DCMA bat.
Another interesting development—Apple has now formally said people other than those on the Psystar organization chart were involved in the unlawful and improper activities. Are these hacker buddies that helped the Pedraza brothers crack the OS X protections? Or are these John Does bigger fish who set the brothers in motion to take a crack at Apple?
Conspiracy theories are such fun? 8^)
No employees of M$ would bother doing thing. How about Dell employees? Nah!
“John Does 1 through 10” could certainly be hardware partners Apple has been working with to supply its components. Those partners might be thinking they’d sell more components to other PC assemblers, if those PC assemblers could sell OS X machines!
Nevertheless, it certainly dues fuel the suspicion I had from the get-go, that there are others behind Psystar’s shenanigans here.
I’m not exactly thrilled that Apple are bringing the DMCA into this, but it *is* currently the law, so it makes sense they’d invoke it in their favor here. Though it does re-raise the troubling “Trusted Computing” can-o-worms issue, so in the long run it could be a bad thing for most of us.
The main questions to me in this Psystar case are still: Should Sony be expected to allow their Playstation OS to run on third-party hardware? Should RIM be expected to allow their Blackberry OS to run on third-party hardware? If not, then why should Apple be expected to allow OS X to be run on third-party hardware?
I think the inclusion of John Does 1 – 10, with the revised filing, is a warning shot at others that would hide behind proxies.
Apple is sure to get a judgement against Psystar. That means that the same judgement is held against John Does 1 – 10.
Now imagine you are one of those John Does, or thinking of becoming a John Doe. Apple already has a judgement against you.
John Does 1-10 may be sinister corporate agents, but they’re just as likely to be individuals who helped the Pedraza brothers crack OS X either for payment or because it was a cool thing to do.
Imagine you’re a hacker who helped your buddies crack the OS X protections ’cause it was a cool thing to do. Then your buddies decided to start a company to sell the cracked version. And they are sued by Apple. Oh, and so are you, just as soon as they determine your name. What laughs you and your buddies have together. Isn’t life just a lark.
I think the number and quality of Psystar’s lawyers is a better clue of industry involvement than the existence of John Does.
Actually, the very belligerent act of continuing to sell Psytar boxes after receiving a C&D;letter from Apple and then going on to attempt to sue Apple indicates to me that these boys who own Psystar have some powerful, deep-pocketed backers with an interest in seeing OS X wrested away from Apple’s hardware. This could turn into a better movie than “The Pirates of Silicone Valley”. Maybe “The Pirates of Miami Beach” !
I love it! Go get ’em Apple!
John Does.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Hmmm… Pirates of Silicone Valley. Apple engineers descend on the Cupertino strip joints and grab all the girls’s fake boobs. I think you got something there, son (puffs on cigar).
Ever wonder who’s behind this law suit and who’s really paying Psystar legal fees?
It sure isn’t Psystar!
Well this is an attempt to put the frighteners on those who are actively (perhaps less actively too) supporting Psystar. It may frighten off some, especially if they do have strong links to other corporations and basically warns anyone/corporation with a lot to lose to stop now, withdraw and you may just escape being implicated if/when further information/evidence becomes available. It also may flush a few out or make them more aware of covering their own ass at the cost of those who may be backing them, be it Psystar or other elements. Or it could be a bluff to simply achieve all of the above in case Apple’s suspicion that such elements do exist are correct.
Oh come on, no top 10 here?
1. Bill Gates
2. Steve Ballmer.
3. Michael Dell
4. George Bush (come on he is planning his retirement)
5. RIM Executive of your choice.
6. Adobe Executive of your choice.
7. Rob Enderlere
8. Rob Enderlere’s wife.
9. John Dvorak (so he can write about it.
and wrapping up the top 10 list….
10. Zune Thang.
Not Zune Tang he/she is happy with Vista
listen Apple… I love OPSX, and I love Macs…
but here is the deal…
you HAVE TO DO ONE OF 2 THINGS LIKE NOW!
either 1: License OSX so I can build my own mac, Don’t license it, don’t allow other manufactures to resell it.. whatever.. jsut sell it to me god damnit..
or 2: Mac a computer that is based on standard desktop parts.. like a real cpu, real space for at least 2 full size hard drives.. some slots to put a vga card in and one or 2 other things.. and dont charge over $999 for it.
You have to do this.. not everyone wants to be trapped in the imac.. and hardly anyone can afford the mac pro.. so get with it..
—
also on another note..
how do you expect to sell a tablet or netbook when the air costs over $9,000?? The air should be the SAME PRICE AS THE REGULAR MACBOOK. it does not require god dust to take out the opticle drive, and slow the cpu down… why again are you charging us $600 extra for something that has less?
yes its smaller and more compact, and required alot of r&d;.. but get real.. its a total rip off.. make your money somewhere else.. like make the mac touch air for $799, and a net book mac for $599, and for Christ’s sakes, upgrade the mini and bring the price back down to less than $500.. you are killing us here… if you want to see you install base over 10% you need to give people the ability to actually buy your computers. PLEASE!
I sell machines for a living, and 9 our of 10 peeps are spending far less than $1000 on their whole setup… FIX IT!
it doesnt matter that you are doign gangbusters.. you could be DOUBLING IT – and be making M$ look like complete douches by ways other than advertising.
let me held you steve
@tt
Not gonna happen. The fact that you think computers should be cheap is irrelevant. Why is it so hard for cheapskates to understand that Apple is a hardware company not a software company and would die if they license their OS – like they nearly did in the ’90s until Jobs was smart enough to put a stop to it.
Get over it. If you want a Mac, suck it up, save your money and buy one. Cheap is ugly and it’s not just skin deep. It’s the kind of ugly that goes all the way to the bone.
35 years ago, Jobs and Woz were John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 when they cracked the phone codes with their Blue Boxes.
While you can feel good to tell someone to suck it up and shell out the cash.. the REALITY is that people are willing to live with XP and an ugly box to save $300… 90% of people!!!!!!!! thtats fucking HUGE! thats like saying you are going to franchise a McDonnell’s (you know like from coming back to america) and only allow people with some sort a disability to eat there..
just think you could build the machine so substandard that people like “The Mac That Roared” can make fun of peoples shitty mac rather than the fact that they don’t have enough money to buy a real mac.
people that are already reluctant for 100 different reasons to get a mac find it easy to say no when they see the price.
I own 4 macs.. and my main machine is an imac… I wish it was a tower… I chose the lessor evil in every way when I purchased it.
I sell PCs for a living, I work at the largest computer store in my state, we get like 1 mac for every 200 or so PCs in for upgrades or repairs, and 100% of our customers buy a PC, we are not going anywhere, there are tons of stores like ours all over the country,
there is a difference between charging a premium and pricing yourself out of the first 3 categories.
btw
Apple is a Hardware & Software company!
donut forget it!
and they are the unique sort of hardware and software company where that each is totally dependent on each other and if either one falters both will crumble.
The world is a cruel place, and its not Apple’s world..
while we all wish it were ITS NOT.. so now is the time, if middle class americans cant afford the Mac, how will the rest of the word?
Bring it on, Just because we want cheap macs it doesn’t mean we are cheap – sounds like you need some life lessons, need to air lift you to the middle of the serengeti and see how cheap you are.
mdn magic word: ‘another’
as in I have posted yet another post.
@tt
You and people like you are COMPLETELY DELUSIONAL. You are telling a company to not only to give up their software advantage but also the higher profit margins of their hardware. If market share is the only thing that matters Apple would have died years ago. The bottom line is that you’re just cheap and that’s not a good enough reason for any company to lower their prices. When it comes to Apple’s business model, NOBODY has come up with a truly viable argument for them to license their OS. NOBODY. You may as well tell Porsche to lower their prices not gonna happen. Too expensive? Too bad.