CHEEKY RUSSIANS have started churning out cloned Macs in defiance of Apple messiah Steve Jobs.
Apple has failed to gain any ground in Russia because the pragmatic Slavs don't see the point of not eating for a year to buy an MP3 player.
Historically the Soviet Union used a lot of Apple gear. Well, it was not badged with the Apple logo. It was cloned and manufactured in Bulgaria. In those days Apple could not complain because the only way Bulgaria was going to stop making the machines was if the USA started World War Three.
When the Berlin Wall fell so did the Bulgarian economy and its light manufacturing industry. The cloned Apple Macs disappeared.
However now it seems that RussianMac is releasing a Mac clone. According to its website, the PC will come with a full version of Mac OS X Leopard pre-installed and it is good enough to fool Apple into sending it automatic software updates.
RussianMac claims that it does not violate the terms of the licence agreement because it has bought the software legitimately from Apple.
Fortunately for RussianMac, Apple will have a hell of a job taking it to court in Russia, which has a legal system that seems to habitually misplace foreign paperwork. µ
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