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Psystar Wins a Round Against Apple
Daengbo writes "'A federal judge last week ruled that Psystar Corp. can continue its countersuit against Apple Inc., giving the Mac clone maker a rare win in its seven-month-old battle with Apple.
He also hinted that if Psystar proves its allegations, others may then be free to sell computers with Mac OS X already installed.'
Apple is currently suing Psystar over its sale of Mac clones."
Blizzard's win against Glider allowed Blizzard to dictate what you can and can't do on your own machine if you use their software.
The same should apply to Apple. You license OS X, and you agree to only run it on Macs.
(Not that I agree with the decision, but that's how I see it)
"And after all that effort, they should be forced to essentially give it away for $130 and sacrifice their hardware business?"
Who's forcing a price on them?
They can charge what they like, surely?
It's the restraint of what is done with it after a sale that is at issue here. If that means that the current $130 is subsidised by hardware sales, then maybe they'll have to look at charging less for hardware and more for new OS versions? Business models have to adjust from time to time, you know. Especially when they are based on artifices like restraint of post-purchase usage which may not be legally enforceable.
Here's the difference. You can buy OS X and install it on any machine you want. Apple won't stop you; however, don't expect Apple to support it as it runs on non-Apple hardware. Now the moment you create a business to start selling it, you become a re-seller. As a re-seller, Apple can dictate what you can and cannot do.
The crux of Apple's argument: Psystar is a re-seller. As a re-seller, their contract would forbid them to do what they are doing. If they've never agreed to a re-seller license (which I doubt they did), then they're not allowed to re-sell OS X as they are doing. Also Apple alleges to install OS X on generic hardware, Psystar would have had to modify OS X. Apple did not give permission to Psystar to modify their code and re-sell it. If Psytar were just to sell OS X unopened in the box with instructions on how to install on generic hardware, they technically would be fine, but Psystar is actually installing OS X which is not okay. The second part of Apple's argument is that these machines do not receive updates from Apple as they fail some sort of verification. Psystar has been distributing updates by taking the Apple updates and modifying them. Again, Psystar does not have permission to modify and re-distribute Apple's code.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.