Hackintosh maker bites back at Apple

Calls for death of Mac EULA

By Austin Modine • Get more from this author

Posted in IT Channel, 26th August 2008 22:14 GMT

Psystar, the company that sells open systems capable of running Mac OS X, plans to fight back against the copyright infringement lawsuit Apple has filed against it.

The Miami-based firm said during a press conference this afternoon it plans to challenge Apple's long-standing licensing ban on running the Mac operating system on non-Apple branded devices.

Psystar said it plans to file a legal complaint against Apple alleging the computer vendor leverages an improper restraint of trade under the Sherman Antitrust Act and Clayton Antitrust Act by tying OS X to Apple hardware.

Psystar said it will request the court find Apple's End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) void and seek unspecified damages. And it plans to deny all charges made last month by Apple claiming violations of license, copyright and trademark.

Psystar Open Computer

Apple also accuses the open system vendor of pirating OS X and modifying its code to allow the operating system to run on Psystar machines. The company denies both charges. Psystar says it doesn't modify any proprietary code, claiming it uses open-source licensed resources for its OS magic.

"Every single copy of the OS is a purchased copy," said Rudy Pedraza, president and co-founder of Psystar. "Despite the allegations that there's a 'master disk,' that's not the case."

The company is still selling its Intel-based OpenComputer desktops running Leopard despite Apple's legal posturing. ®

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