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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Psystar to Countersue Apple, Take No Guff
Psystar, prominent makers of “Hackintosh” PCs running Mac OS X, is set to respond to Apple’s copyright infringement suit on Tuesday and file a countersuit of their own, just like we thought. Psystar owner Rudy Pedraza insists that his OpenComputer hardware is merely “providing an alternative, an option” to Apple’s pricey hardware. Pedraza plans to countersue Apple under two federal antitrust laws, hoping to prove that Apple’s fierce tethering of OS to hardware represents an “anticompetitive restraint of trade.” It’ll be an uphill battle to fight Apple’s legal team, but I kind of hope they win: it’s like David versus Goliath, if David and Goliath were both big nerds. [CNET]
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Open Tech is up for sale
Just as quickly as Open Tech opened up, the Mac clone creator has decided to put itself up for sale. Of course, we’re not sure who would buy a company that could be sued at anytime by the Mothership.
Open Tech has information about the sale on their website. For just $50,000 (payable via PayPal, oddly enough), you will receive the following:
- Open Tech name
- Open Tech website
- Trade secrets (as in secrets to ripping off Apple)
- Press contacts (are they selling the actual people?)
- 2 Open Tech machines with the OS of your choice
This information comes on the heels of Mac clone maker Psystar being sued by Apple for copyright infringement among other things. So, if you are looking to buy a company with built-in legal trouble, Open Tech looks like it could be a good scam deal.
[via MacNN]
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Open Tech Mac Clone Company Wants To Sell Itself For $50,000
It’s only been three weeks since the mac “clone” company Open Tech made its debut, but it’s already putting itself up for sale for $50,000. In an email on July 20, their Vice President Elijah Samaroo said that they were going to “beat psystar and not make the mistake they did.” By this we took it to mean not distribute a hacked copy of Leopard, which is already available on the internet and is the people have been installing OS X on non-Apple machines for quite a while. That’s not what they were doing, unfortunately. When we asked them whether they could install a plan retail copy of Leopard you purchase at the store onto their hardware without modification, they said “no”. The only legit way of actually being “open” is to modify hardware to fool Leopard into thinking that you’re putting it on a Mac. In this sense, Open Tech is the exact same as Psystar, and both will most likely be smacked down by Apple. $500 is too much to pay for this company. [Wired]
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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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