Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 02 December 2008 07:34
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Apple has beefed up its complaint against Mac 'cloner' Psystar by alleging a breach of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). But does Apple understand the DMCA?
Earlier this year,
Psystar started selling a PC assembled from off-the-shelf parts selected for compatibility with Mac OS X, and offered Apple's operating system as a preinstalled option.
The company followed up with
server configurations competing with Apple's Xserve and optionally running Mac OS X Server.
In July, Apple launched
legal action against Psystar, alleging copyright, trademark and trade dress infringement; trademark dilution; breach of contract; and unfair competition.
Psystar filed a
counterclaim against Apple under antitrust laws, but that didn't get them very far.
Apple sought to have Psystar's countersuit dismissed, and
the judge agreed. Psystar had failed to establish that there were distinct markets for Mac OS capable computers (as opposed to other PCs) and for Mac OS X itself (as opposed to other operating systems).
That was no big surprise, as Psystar had been offering its Open Computer and OpenServ customers the choice of Windows and Linux as well as Mac OS X.
The latest development is that Apple has been permitted to add DMCA claims to its suit against Psystar.
What's Apple's new beef? See page
2.
