Psystar countersues Apple

The Psystar saga continues. Back in April, Psystar went public with the first commercial Hackintosh clones. For US$554, they’d send you a Core 2 Duo minitower with Mac OS X preinstalled. In June, they released rack-mount servers with Leopard Server preinstalled in both 1U (starting $1599) and 2U (starting $1999) configurations.

Last July, the inevitable happened and Apple filed a lawsuit against Psystar citing copyright infringement, and demanded that they recall all machines. Psystar responded by acquiring legal representation from Carr & Ferrell, who previously settled with Apple in another case.

Still with us? Good. This week, Psystar seems to be preparing to countersue Apple, citing anticompetitive business practices. Specifically, the suit alleges that Apple’s practice of restricting OS X to Apple hardware is “…an anticompetitive restraint of trade.”

We think that’s a stretch, but this story sure is fun to follow. We’ll keep you updated as soon as anything changes. If you want a claim-by-claim breakdown of Apple’s suit against Psystar, check out Nilay Patel’s full accounting over at Engadget.

[Via Electronista]

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Woman sues Apple, claims false iPhone advertising

A Birmingham, Alabama, woman has sued Apple, claiming its television advertisements about the iPhone 3G being twice as fast as its predecessor are false. She also claims her handset is defective.

The woman, Jessica Smith, is seeking class-action status for her suit.

According to The Birmingham News, Smith’s iPhone connects most often to the slower, older EDGE network, and not the 3G network that the advertisements claim.

Apple has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation, but Apple is, as Macworld puts it, “repeatedly sued” over a variety of complaints.

[Via Macworld.]

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Psystar “Definitely Still Shipping” Mac Clones

Psystar simply doesn’t know when to quit. Despite being in the midst of a lawsuit with Apple, they continue to push their luck. Not only are they offering free Leopard restore disks to their customers, Psystar has also confirmed that the Mac clones are “definitely still shipping.” They had better hope that their fancy Palo Alto-based Carr & Ferrell lawyers can back up all of this machismo. [InformationWeek]

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Psystar Offers Free Leopard Restore Disc

Psystar, the company that’s fighting back against being smacked down by Apple, has just decided to ship Leopard restore discs free of charge to their customers. If you remember, one of the (many) major problems with Psystar’s machines was that you had to ship your box back to them if anything went wrong because their “hackintosh” approach to putting OS X on whiteboxes wouldn’t allow you using a regular Leopard disc. Is this going to help or hurt their case against Apple? We’re thinking hurt, because now they’re shipping a modified copy of Leopard, but our only knowledge of lawyering comes from Phoenix Wright 1-4. [Psystar]

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Apple engineers: We’re indentured servants

On Monday, a group of Apple technical staffers filed suit against Apple alleging that the company denied them overtime pay and meal compensation. Both the pay and meal compensation are required by California state law. The suit also claims that many Apple employees are subjected to working conditions that are similar to indentured servitude.

The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, David Walsh, was an Apple network engineer from 1995 to 2007. He stated that he was often required to work more than 40 hours a week, miss meals, and spend evenings and weekends on call without any overtime pay or meal compensation. [Author's personal comment: this is not unusual in the tech industry]

Walsh alleges that Apple deliberately classified Walsh and others as management employees so that they would not receive overtime compensation as required by California law for hourly employees. The class action suit also seeks to include the staffers at Apple Stores as plaintiffs.

Should the plaintiffs win, Apple could be required to revise its compensation practices and pay retroactive compensation to many present and past employees. Apple has not responded to the complaint.

Thanks to Charles for the tip! [pcauthority]

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