Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 27th Aug 2008 22:21 UTC, submitted by tzineos
Law and Order Mac clone maker Psystar plans to file its answer to Apple's copyright infringement lawsuit Tuesday as well as a countersuit of its own, alleging that Apple engages in anticompetitive business practices. Miami-based Psystar, owned by Rudy Pedraza, will sue Apple under two federal laws designed to discourage monopolies and cartels, the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act, saying Apple's tying of the Mac OS to Apple-labeled hardware is "an anticompetitive restrain of trade", according to attorney Colby Springer of antitrust specialists Carr & Ferrell. Psystar is requesting that the court find Apple's EULA void, and is asking for unspecified damages. Psystar's attorneys are calling Apple's allegations of Psystar's copyright infringement "misinformed and mischaracterized". Psystar argues that its OpenComputer product is shipped with a fully licensed, unmodified copy of Mac OS X, and that the company has simply "leveraged open source-licensed code including Apple's OS" to enable a PC to run the Mac operating system.
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RE[5]: Broader issue ...
by MattPie on Thu 28th Aug 2008 16:33 UTC in reply to "RE[4]: Broader issue ..."
MattPie
Member since:
2006-04-18

Apple has no legal grounds for saying that Psystar can't install a legitimately purchased copy of OS X on it.

That's the rub, I don't think Psystar *can* legitimately purchase copies of the software from Apple to re-sell. If they made you buy OSX and sent it to them to install, they're selling a service; that's OK. If they send you a a computer and a loader disk that requires a copy of OSX that you purchase, also OK. They cannot* sell you a copy of OSX installed on the machine themselves, since Apple isn't selling them redistributable copies.

* This gets back to EULA law. Is it legal for a company (or person) to re-sell anything, or can the original selling company limit re-selling of its products? An individual has fair-use rights and whatnot that cover them, but I'm not sure a company has the same fair-use rights, or that re-selling is fair-use.

Edited 2008-08-28 16:35 UTC

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