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Psystar starts licensing Apple's Mac OS X to OEMs

Tired of being sued alone
Tuesday, 6 October 2009, 15:48

NOT CONTENT with antangonising Apple all alone, cheeky Mac cloning company Psystar is trying to gather allies to its cause by offering to certify other non-Apple hardware as OS X compliant.

As if the Florida-based company had not done enough to put Apple's dogs of law into a rabid frenzy of legal activity, Psystar has announced that it will "begin certifying manufacturer's hardware to allow the licensing of Psystar's new virtualisation technology, effectively making their systems Mac OSX compatible."

If that doesn't make Cupertino Company's lawyers collectively spit out their morning non-fat soya moccaccino with wheatgrass sprinkles, we don't know what will.

But Psystar seems all but impervious to Apple's legal badgering. Every attempt Jobs' Mob has made to get Psystar to cease and desist in its nefarious activities has fallen on deaf ears, and the men in grey suits seem to all the world to have quietly resigned themselves to a future in which any old Tom Dick or Harry can ride roughshod over the company's cast iron EULAs.

So has Apple given up on its attempt to protect its precious OS from the grubby council house kids in the playground, or is this merely the calm before the storm? Some think Apple doesn't have a leg to stand on as Psystar uses the US First Sale doctrine to break copyright protection for software, threatening to destroy the General Public License (GPL) as collateral damage in the process.

Others will tell you that Apple has quietly backed off from the all-too-public flurry of legal arguments being batted to and fro, in order to prepare a case that will blow Psystar out of the water once and for all, rendering it very, very dead.

Perhaps this is why Psystar is putting out a call to arms to other OEMs to join it in the battle against the Cupertino Cabal and its insistence on controlling who uses its operating system and on what hardware. And with Snow Leopard offering a leaner, meaner, and altogether snappier version of Mac OS X, who knows what hardware it will run on? Full fat Mac OS X on a $300 netbook anyone? Yes please!

"Psystar's virtualisation technology, specifically engineered for Snow Leopard, allows for seamless operation of OSX on generic Intel hardware and would be offered on all Psystar Certified machines," the company says, further fanning the flames.

And in an effort to seem all magnanimous, it continues, "In an effort to spread the Snow Leopard experience to an ever-expanding number of people, the licensing initiative will allow manufacturers to have their hardware Psystar Certified and have their computers pre loaded with our unique technology including the Darwin Universal Boot Loader (DUBL)."

Once a device has beeen footled about with in a process which Psystar insists adds no engineering costs, punters can buy Snow Leopard off the shelf or through standard channels and then install it exactly as if the computer was one of Apple's own expensive and desireable machines.

Psystar says it is offering this service in order to offer users freedom of choice, but we can't help but think that this could be a last ditch defence before Apple's big push destroys the plucky little company so comprehensively that its machines will become collector's items.

Any OEM with enough balls to join Psystar in its suicidal last stand should be applauded and pitied in the same measure. We suspect they may be dragged down by a sinking ship, yet we can but hope. µ

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Comments
Now I know they are working for

someone else!
Its a no win game they're playing:
If they win Apple. Apples wont be exclusive anymore and half their users will have to find something else to pose with.
Also Apple will have to make the profit they want out of the OS and not the hardware so the OS price will go up and Psystar will be out of a job.
I'd like to see who's really behind Psystar.

posted by : Tom, 06 October 2009 Complain about this comment
open and shut case

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

Apple is toast

ahahahhahaha!!

Now maybe someone can sue steam so we can sell our bloody old games without selling our accounts...

posted by : joey, 06 October 2009 Complain about this comment
Problem is

Problem is, even though I object to EULAs and Software Licensing, without it the GPL is just another piece of toilet paper and all it's protection is gone for good.
And I object to letting someone reap the reward for doing nothing in its own right (not developing the software of the os, not developing the hackintosh tools at first, just using what knowledge is there and than asking money for this - cheap tards...)

posted by : DerWahn, 06 October 2009 Complain about this comment
First sale doctine means Psystar is toast

"This means that the copyright holder's rights to control the change of ownership of a particular copy end once that copy is sold, as long as no additional copies are made."
So the copy they put on your non-apple machine cant be sold on - so Psystar can sell you a machine and the install cd but not preinstalled.
You may, for a while, get OSX for non Apple machines but not for long.
Why bother?

posted by : Tom, 06 October 2009 Complain about this comment
You got it wrong Tom

The text you quoted "This means that the copyright holder's rights to control the change of ownership of a particular copy end once that copy is sold, as long as no additional copies are made."

Really says this: If Apple sells copies of OSX to Phystar, Apple does not have the right to stop Psystar from selling those copies to other people, as long as Psyster doesn't make new copies.

In other words, Psystar is a computer manufacturer and OSX reseller. Nothing wrong with selling both at the same time. Also, nothing wrong with 'saying' that a particular OS can be installed on a particular computer. :)

posted by : mike, 06 October 2009 Complain about this comment
How will this "destroy the GPL"?

In fact, how will this affect software licensing at all?

Like Apple, the GPL places conditions upon how you use its software. It doesnt specify how you might have obtained it.

If I buy Mac POS X - or download Linux - I have to obey the licensing conditions. It doesnt matter whether I got it off the Pirate Bay, the server in Stallmans bedroom, or the flagship Apple Store in Cupertino.

AIUI, the First Sale Doctrine says that neither Linus nor His Holiness the Steve can stop me giving or selling that copy to someone else. What it *doesnt* say is that the person I give/sell it to is then free to ride roughshod over the licensing agreement.

Maybe Im missing something, but it seems to me that such an interpretation would open a *major* loophole?

IANAL etc

posted by : Anonymous Coward, 06 October 2009 Complain about this comment
Going down in flames....

Anyone stupid enough to join Psystar's suicide attempt deserves to go down in flames with them. There is only one company that would benefit from Psystar polluting the Mac Market with clones while also destroying the GPL. VOLE!!!

posted by : Frank Black, 06 October 2009 Complain about this comment
Re: Going down in flames....

Quote: "There is only one company that would benefit from Psystar polluting the Mac Market with clones while also destroying the GPL. VOLE!!!"

So each PC that Psystar sells with a copy of OS X legally bought from Apple benefits Microsoft?

Really? Because the only way I see that happening, is when the buyer realises that the programs included with OS X are so buggy that they crash way more often then their Windows box, and deletes OS X to install a more stable OS.

But Microsoft would only benefit here if the buyer decides to buy Windows 7 rather then using an old Windows XP disc.

posted by : Dave, 06 October 2009 Complain about this comment
Suicide bomber in IT world

It looks like Psystar's waging a holy war on Apple. They basically said "fuck ya'll!" and ran toward Apple with explosives strapped on their back, fuses lit.

posted by : Shane, 06 October 2009 Complain about this comment
Really...

Psystar will [eventually] be crushed for the simple fact that Apple will no longer be able to charge for their over-priced hardware. As previous person stated, OSX pricing will go through the roof... as much as (gosh) Windows...

posted by : Windoze, 07 October 2009 Complain about this comment
Computer hobbiest

I think Apple should be happy that Psystar is doing this. Apple needs more market share to combat Microsoft if it wants to be a viable and profitable OS platform. So as I see it. It,s a win win for Apple, INC. They need to wake up and smell the coffee.

posted by : Christopher Broyles, 07 October 2009 Complain about this comment
Re: Windoze

Have you seen the price difference between equally specified Mac and Windows based PCs? The only functional difference between the two is the OS, so your claim that OSX is cheaper than Windows simply doesn't ring true.

They may sell OSX on its own (relatively) cheaply, but the only people for whom that's of any use are those who have already paid through the nose for the privilege in the first place.

posted by : Lindsay, 07 October 2009 Complain about this comment
RE:Computer Hobbiest

Apple doesnt want marketshare. Their buisness model and state of software couldnt handle it.

If OSX were to suddenly find itself on the PC market, everyone would realize that OSX is useless, buggy, and very insecure to boot. It does just fine in a contained enviroment with minimal market share and users who cant operate a standard mouse. Outside of that very specific enviroment, it all falls to hell.

posted by : TheCapulet, 07 October 2009 Complain about this comment
psystar is bunch of losers

who steal everything they can, just digg a bit and you'll find out. os x86 community is quite pissed off with them for stealing someone's hard work and selling it. they completely lack an kind of common sense, bunch of assholes

posted by : hexx, 07 October 2009 Complain about this comment
BSD license

hexx...welcome to the world of BSD licensing.

posted by : Joe, 07 October 2009 Complain about this comment
Do Psystar flog suicide kit as well?

"that the exclusive statutory right to "vend" applied only to the first sale of the copyrighted work"

Is Psystar a licenced reseller or vendor of Apple kit? Or, are they aiding and abetting by enabling the unintiated to knowingly/unknowingly commit fraud toward Apple and deprive Apple of income and reputation; and also by Pystar's misrepresentation, advertisements, claims of expertise and vending as a supplier to produce a counterfeit, and possibly to also defraud, networks and other IT apparattuses, protocols, society and the public...

malignité du coeur de satisfaites dans ce principe, et l’intérêt y est opposé. Laissez faire, morbleu! Laissez faire!!

Pardon someone's French.

Non non non. Laissez-nous faire!!!

qu'ils mangent de la brioche of contract.

posted by : Dr. Kevokian, 07 October 2009 Complain about this comment
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