Psystar Wars: Attack of the Clones

Davey Winder
Wednesday, 27 August 2008 16:36

IT Industry - Strategy

In a new twist to the Psystar saga, the Mac cloning company is to countersue Apple claiming anticompetitive business practises because the Mac Operating System is tied to Apple only hardware...

Rudy Pedraza has become something of a love him or loathe him figure in the Applesphere. His company, Psystar, started selling Mac clones this year under the guise of the OpenMac which quickly became the OpenComputer and then added the OpenPro to its range.

Right from the get go you knew there was going to be trouble when the Psystar servers went down under the strain as eager customer clamoured to order the cheap white box Macs.

Indeed, Psystar suffered many problems along the way as the company providing payment-processing services withdrew abruptly causing the site to go down again. However, it now faces the biggest challenge of all: Apple itself.

Apple eventually, and inevitably, filed suit against Psystar in July. Interestingly, the Psystar site has a page dedicated to 'litigation' which remains tantalisingly blank as I write.

However, Rudy Pedraza is not firing blanks, he is taking aim at Apple with live ammo: a countersuit that will argue by restricting Mac OS usage to its own-brand hardware Apple is executing an anticompetitive restrain of trade.

The legal move is to be made under two federal laws which are meant to discourage business monopolies, namely the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Pedraza is arguing that the Apple EULA should be declared null and void, and will be claiming as yet unspecified damages.

"My goal is to provide an alternative, not to free the Mac OS" Pedraza told reporters "It's not that people don't want to use Mac OS, many people are open to the idea, but they're not used to spending an exorbitant amount of money on something that is essentially generic hardware."

Colby Springer, a lawyer at Carr & Ferrell LLP which is representing Psystar, says that "Every single copy of the OS is a purchased copy. There is no modification of any proprietary code of Apple's."

This one will run and run, meanwhile Psystar continues to sell its white box Mac clones...