“In its last legal salvo against Psystar, Apple suggested the Mac clone maker was backed by a silent third party or two. And at this point it better be, because there’s going to be hell to pay when Apple legal is through with it, regardless of how Psystar revises its original complaint. Its antitrust allegations against Apple dismissed, Pystar [yesterday] renewed its copyright claims against the company, alleging the Mac OS is designed to go into a kernel panic if it determines it’s being run on non-Apple hardware,” John Paczkowski reports for All Things Digital.
“That’s an intriguing allegation. Risky though, since it’s also an admission that Psystar has circumvented the technological copyright-protection measures built into OS X,” Paczkowski writes. “Apple contends Psystar has done so illegally, in violation of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Psystar says that’s impossible because the kernel panic-forcing code at issue here isn’t a copyright-protection measure.”
Paczkowski writes, “Who’s right? Who knows? But if it’s Apple, then Psystar presumably is guilty of circumventing Apple’s copyright protection systems under the DMCA. And that’s a felony, because Psystar profited from the circumvention.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
Enough already, those guys are doing illegal things, shut them down.
Let’s find out who the “silent third party or two” are first.
does that mean they fart silently?
@MIkeR:
I’m with you. It would be extremely interesting to say the least.
Spend 5 minutes with your BFF Google and you’ll notice their are many computers (Dell, Sony, whatever) running OS X and none are exhibiting kernel panics on decidedly “non Apple” hardware.
I said “Summary Judgement” against Peestar in the beginning.
I’m surprised it went on this long.
I wonder if Peestar has chinese backers…..hmm…
HP makes printers, and in order to make them work, they create drivers. The drivers only work with HP printers.
Apple makes computers, and in order to make them work, they create an operating system. The operating system only works with Apple computers.
Now what is the difference? If Psystar prevails, will hardware manufacturers have to make their drivers work on all devices in the same product category?
Now you might say that Windows, Linux, and various generic device drivers are designed to be as hardware agnostic as possible, but so what? It doesn’t make HP’s scanner drivers illegal. So how could it make OS X illegal?
A person can install and run nearly any x86 operating system on a Mac, and there are alternatives to the Apple’s hardware, so where’s the beef?
I see no substance to Psystar’s complaint.
What does it matter if it kernel panics? If they have gotten that far, they have already broken the EULA. I mean, you have to click “I Agree” first right?
HP makes printers, and in order to make them work, they create drivers. The drivers only work with HP printers.
WRONG!
Many other printers use the HP command set; they were designed to work with an HP driver. Of course, not all HP drivers were necessarily written by HP. Does anyone know who wrote all the HP drivers in OS X?
“Would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar tries risky allegation against Apple”
the title should read: “Would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar has publicly admitted their pure stupidity”
HEY PSYSTAR, if you are reading this : GIVE UP, no one is going to remember you anyway.
fools
Looks to me like Psystar is determined to rush headlong over a cliff. So long, suckers!
I wonder how many of these Jalopies Psystar has managed to sell? Anybody know?
@qka
Harvey’s analogy with printer drivers may not be the best analogy. Try this one.
RIM makes the Blackberry OS. This OS only works with Blackberry or other RIM-made phones.
Sony makes the Playstation OS. This OS only works with Playstation or other Sony-made hardware.
Apple makes Mac OS X. This OS only works with Macs or other Apple-made hardware.
So if Psystar prevails, suddenly everyone and their dog could start suing RIM to allow their Blackberry OS to run on their third-party phone hardware, and Sony to allow the Playstation OS to run on their third-party game console.
I can’t see any judge ruling in Psystar’s favor and creating those kinds of ripple effects through the industry.
Lexmark had not long ago won a case against aftermarket toner manufacturers for building toners that work with Lexmark printers. In order to do that, they had to reverse-engineer encrypted code in Lexmark’s original toners and re-create the same code for their own toners. However, they subsequently lost on appeal. However, the opinions were written by all applate judges, and the majority ones provided nice legal material for future cases.
Unlike patents, copyright protection cannot be applied to ideas, but only to particular, creative expressions of ideas. Distinguishing between an unprotectable idea and a protectable creative expression is difficult in the context of computer programs; even though it may be possible to express the same idea in many different programs, “practical realities” — hardware and software constraints, design standards, industry practices, etc. — may make different expressions impractical. “Lock-out” codes — codes that must be performed in a certain way in order to bypass a security system — are generally considered functional rather than creative, and thus unprotectable.
With Mac OS X, it shouldn’t be difficult for Apple to demonstrate the creative expression qualities of their code. Once they accomplish that, they can invoke DMCA.
By Pystar’s logic, I should be allowed to run the operating system from an. XBox on my PS3. Microsoft is monopolizing the XBox OS market…
Oh yeah, I also want to run the OS from a TiVo on my DVD player, and the OS from a Sony TV on my cheap no-name set.
Idiots.
It’s obvious the Psystar guys are paid for it.
Gabriel,
“I can’t see any judge ruling in Psystar’s favor and creating those kinds of ripple effects through the industry.”
I agree wholeheartedly with your entire post, but I can easily see some idiot judge (maybe the same fool who rendered the M$-Apple decision back in the 1990″s) ruling against Apple, especially in that backwater hole in eastern Texas where the trial is taking place.
> Psystar says that’s impossible because the kernel panic-forcing code at issue here isn’t a copyright-protection measure.
If there is such code, why is it NOT a copyright-protection measure?
These guys are dead and desperate, and if there is financial backing, it was very smart of Apple to bring them into the picture. The damage claims will reach into deeper pockets.
I agree with other posts about running OS’s or software from one product on another, but at least in these cases there would be effort required to make it work.
Another analogy for me is films. If Psystars argument stood, then surely DRM on music and film would be illegal. And there is NO technical difficulty in studios releasing films for all media simultaneously. So they would have to release for iTunes and Netflix (which is another current story) at the same time as on DVD. Indeed, they would have to release on DVD at the same time as cinema. Furthermore they would not be allowed to block copying from DVD to computer or ipod etc.
I AM PSYSTAR!!! Mwah, ha, ha! Soon I will be free to save my company from fading into the Vista….
If Psystar is indeed guilty of a felony, then they will be in a world of hurt. Apple’s allegation is proved that Psystar is backed by someone much bigger, that will end up being a blessing in disguise, otherwise Psystar would be left on its own to take the fall.
why are the chinese being blamed for everything?
is this like the russians in the 1980s?
you know, not all chinese people think the same way. news flash people!
i would say the backers are more likely to be american firms. CUI BONO?! look to the vendors!
its the devil himself mr Bill Gates
“HP makes printers, and in order to make them work, they create drivers. The drivers only work with HP printers.”
That’s not actually true. The HP PCL drivers have always worked with a wide range of other printers that cloned HP’s PCL.
“suddenly everyone and their dog could start suing RIM”
Apple’s machines are standard PCs which conform to an open and readily available spec that Apple did not develop. Psytar is buying a retail, mostly public domain OS from Apple for exactly the price Apple asks for that OS. Also they are not asking Apple to change anything or support the OS. It works precisely because Appld sells a generic OS and generic PCs.
“I also want to run the OS from a TiVo on my DVD player”
Since the Tivo OS is Linux, you are within your rights to call Tivo, get your copy of the OS source sent over and get it working on your DVD player.
I view commenting as a addition of the blog post itself. It can either add or discuss the post, or answer a question. Thence, that’s available to purchase or buy essays that will be premium.