Psystar Takes On Apple

To ZDNet readers, this is a rehash of my posts to Adrian Kingsley-Hughes’ Hardware 2.0 blog article, “Psystar: Apple’s terms violate U.S. monopoly laws.” But I think it’s worth re-posting here for those who may not have read anything about this development.

Psystar is selling generic hardware with Apples’s OSX Leopard installed. In an effort to head off litigation from Apple, Psystar claims that Apple’s OSX End User License Agreement creates a vertical monopoly.

In my opinion, Psystar is going about this the wrong way. I believe Apple violates the license to the FreeBSD kernel by tying down their OS to proprietary hardware. It’s not stated clearly in the FreeBSD license, but perhaps there’s a way to invalidate the Apple EULA based upon their licensing of FreeBSD. If there’s a way in, I think that’s it. To me it’s the same as if Hewlett Packard only licensed Redhat Linux Enterprise to run on HP hardware. How idiotic would that be? There’s little overhead to reproducing software for distribution. Note that I didn’t say development.

Explain why there’s been little if any effort to shut down OSx86? Surely if Apple had a legal leg to stand on, they would have nipped the OSx86 Project in the bud. Perhaps the restrictive EULA is nothing more than an invitation for hackers to try to make it work. You unwitting dupes! Could the Apple EULA be a way around a non-compete agreement with MS and nothing more? If end users break Mac OSX’s shackles, then Apple is not accountable for OSX being made available to everyone. Remember MS infusing cash into Apple several years ago? Could this be the real crux?

To make it all legal, maybe Apple could package a little sticker with OSX copies similar to what MS did with OEM copies of XP. Putting that on your computer could in fact make you in compliance with the Apple EULA. I think I have an old Apple logo sticker somewhere around here from when I owned a Mac II.