Apple dings Psystar for $2.67m, round two heads to Florida
By Nilay Patel 
posted December 1st 2009 3:19PM
posted December 1st 2009 3:19PM
There's one other little wrinkle here, and that's exactly what Apple's eventually going to be able to prevent Psystar from doing. It's certain that the California court will bar Psystar from preloading machines with Leopard, but Psystar's arguing that its new Rebel EFI software shouldn't be covered by any decision, since it wasn't part of the case. That's an interesting argument and definitely worth some consideration -- but it's got some holes in it since Psystar's now admitted that it's liable for contributory and induced copyright infringement and violating the DMCA. As we've said before, Psystar's essentially doing with Rebel EFI what Grokster got smacked by the Supreme Court for doing in 2005: it's trying to build a business around the knowing copyright infringement of customers, and that usually doesn't fly. We'll see what happens -- and Florida awaits.
Can't anyone get along anymore?
@(Unverified)
Apple spent over 30 years developing their business model and OS... and selling complete computer systems and providing support for those systems. That's what they've done from day one.
Newcomer Psystar comes along and says: "We don't like what you're doing"
No... Apple is not gonna get along with them!
serves them right...
if I'm Psystar I'm gonna be changing my name and move to another country.
@mikmik111
knowing them its probably IRAN.
(here come the politically correct comments denouncing what I just said.)
They should make them pay for it in slavery...
These bumb KNEW they were F-in around with the man.
@NAME
Deep breathing man, relax...Get some cookies and milk and think happy place...
Sigh...
The funny part is RebelEFI is junk. It doesn't work on ANY of the 9-10 machines I've tested, it simply conks out with multiple write errors when booting the demo CD. Which I would had actually bought it if it did work. A triple boot rig would be awesome but I have a weird OEM board so Hackintoshing has been unsuccessful for me.
@Level 5
Try burning it properly then because it worked on the 3 machines i tested it on, including 1 stubborn one that i couldnt get working with any of the hackintosh releases.
@Sheppard
Pretty sure it is burned properly because the program does RUN it just cannot write the EFI section.
man I really don't like the new Engadget. The design is just so much to take in and too many pieces altogether. I used to check Engadget like 6-7 times a day, whenever I sat down at the computer. Now I check it once or twice a day cause I can't stand the new layout. Hopefully I'll get used to it. I know a lot of people really like it, but I don't.
@Agent007 This has nothing to do with the post, but have you tried http://engadget.com/headlines? It's pretty much the old view.
@Agent007
userstyles ftw
also you can use adblock to chop off those ugly frames, basically making it like the old engadget
@Nilay Patel
I didn't know about /headlines. Definitely better. I read your articles all the time, Nilay, I'm kind of honored to receive a reply from you. Take care.
Or if your browser can view RSS natively (as most can):
http://www.engadget.com/rss.xml
Wow, thanks Nilay. Bookmarked.
@Agent007
I dislike it as well. Finding posts without an expand all when the replies are hidden is a pain.
There are still numerous JavaScript errors causing problems.
In IE the ranking buttons still do not work.
I guess it is asking too much to actually test before you go live.
I guess it is asking too much to apply some of the easier fixes and suggestions in a weeks time.
Oh well.
These bumb have no money whatsoever. What ever little scrap savings they had they probably put it into the names of family members.
They should do a paper trace and take that money away from them.
I hope the families of Poopstar have to eat brea and water and live in the streets so that Apple share holders can get an extra $0.005 increase in stock value.
F-U Poop star and I hope to see you on the street begging for money to buy food.
Anyone else want to try and make a $ from other people's work?
@NAME Umm they are probably an LLC or a corporation so they will have no personal liability. That money will never be paid.
@NAME How are they profiting from others' work? They build the computers and hack the Kernal to get it to run on non-Apple hardware. Same thing with windows, many companies use the OS. So are you saying that HP profits from using windows on it's machines, or dell is any different from Psystar? They both use someone elses OS.
I really wanted apple to lose! If I buy snow leopard I should be able to install it on whatever I want. The EULA doesn't mean anything because I own it.
I can't sell you a car and then tell you what road to drive it on, now can I?
@Hydra "The EULA doesn't mean anything because I own it."
Well, the EULA pretty definitively means you don't own it, my man.
@Hydra
For one, there are private roads. Second, you have an alternative. use WIndows on a PC.
@Nilay Patel Yes I do own it, if I pay for it, I can install it on what I want, break it, give it away, its mine.
You can sell me an item, then claim I don't own it.
@troyallen I also have the alternative to install leopard on my pc
@Hydra
Apple doesn't give a F*CK if you install tiger on your PC. Apple sells hardware to run their OS, Psystar is selling hardware that runs Apple's hard word and their bread and butter.
Do you know what is going on?
@Hydra
Yes, You dont really buy a Ferrari or a Bugatti Veyron.. If you keep that car dirty and put loser add-ons to it Ferrari can demand their car back.
They dont sell it to every fat ugly immigrant who wins the lottery but cannet even put together a basic dignified sentence.
@Hydra
"I can't sell you a car and then tell you what road to drive it on, now can I?"
No, but you can sell me ethanol and tell me what engine it goes in...
@NAME
No need to wish further misfortune on other humans.
Although I wonder... normally if you form an LLC. You yourself are not liable for claims against the company, just the company itself. So if Psystar files bankruptcy, the owners can walk away right? I've heard of ways for lawyers to "Pierce through the shield" of limited liability protection. I wonder if these folks are liable. Any experts out there?
Looks like real competition for Apple will have to be ...not Apple. SURPRISE!
... hooray?
man i wanted to buy a Psystar :(
@raysfan81 You are better off building a pc yourself with compatible hardware and installing a modified leopard or snow leopard. You can follow the life hacker guide to do it easily
@raysfan81 I know i was planning on using the new lifehacker snow leopard guide but psystar was a cool idea
@raysfan81
I used Psystar and it works good....even though they say hardware works flawless I had to upgrade the video card and manually install the drivers.
Get em Apple! leave all Psystar's employees looking for food stamps to put food on the table.
@High
Part of your job as an employee is to research the company you are applying for. The applicants should have known full well the issues surrounding Psystar. To use an analogy, it's as if you're blaming law enforcement for putting drug dealers out of business. While certainly Apple nor Psystar are anywhere near that extreme, there was certainly some inkling of the trouble to come.
Haha, why the heck would you start a company who's basis is copyright infringement?! They should get sued for stupidity...
@supadude
Uh, Microsoft? Oh Psystar! Right..
@Nilay Does this mean that Psystar is different from an aftermarket car modder? I'm trying to understand the precedent here.
If I go to Shelby and buy a souped-up Mustang, they have right to profit from the service, plus the cost of parts, right? Likewise, assuming Psystar did things properly (which they admitted they didn't), couldn't they build a machine, soup it up, and sell me the parts along with charging me for service? As long as Psystar is installing the specific copy I buy from them onto the machine, shouldn't that be okay?
I worry about the slippery slope, wherein creators of all products can dictate to me how I may (and may not) use them, without allowing me to improvise. Moreover, given that a copy to RAM is considered an infringing copy of OS X, I worry about the ability to, say, record TV shows and watch on my own schedule. Can TiVo be sued under DMCA for enabling people to infringe copyright? Slingbox?
If this decision is not an implicit statement that I cannot use what I purchase how I choose (without profiting from other people's work), then how is it different?
@Vijay The thing about copyright law is that analogies to things that aren't covered by copyright law (like hot rods) simply won't help you. Copyright holders are allowed to license their works to you however they want -- it's a free market, and you don't have to buy if you don't want to. What's more, Apple's EULA wasn't even the big problem here, it was that Psystar was making tons of illegal copies of OS X from a Mac Mini imaging station. You simply can't build a business on copyright infringement -- which is pretty okay public policy in my eyes.
@Nilay Patel I understood that they got dinged for ACTUAL copyright violations, but I'm wondering about the future implications of the fringes which were not clearly answered, specifically the efficacy of EULAs and DMCA protections in this type of situation.
For example, now that TV is digital, can Comcast/NBC sue Slingbox or TiVo under DMCA for illegally enabling the copying of a television program (a la Napster)?
Moreover, in your opinion, how should lawmakers/the judiciary create a reasonable test that protects copyrights while also protecting the after-market (e.g., paying someone to tweak my OS, or install it where it doesn't normally go, etc.)?
@Vijay
The big difference is you license software as opposed to owning it.
Guys,
Psyster has made an agreement with Apple that allows them to continue. They just don't pre-load OS X.
But man, that's a lot of moolah to get dinged for, when they build fewer than 800 machines. Well over $1,000 a fauxMac.
@(Unverified) No, Psystar has most emphatically not made an agreement with Apple that allows them to continue without pre-loading OS X. I'm betting that the California court bars Psystar from selling Rebel EFI, and if it doesn't it's a certainty that the Florida court will.
@Nilay Patel
I guess you didn't see the news then yesterday, where the agreement was a part of their settlement.
Wow. Psystar actually thought they were going to sell 12 MILLION units. If there was any question at all about how delusional those dimwits are, it should be very VERY clear now.
And out of the 768 units they did manage to sell, I bet most of them went to tech journalists or bloggers who just wanted to write about them, not people who actually wanted a hackintosh.
Psystar is so completely stupid about this that I find it hard to believe they even got off the ground at all. I mean it's like they have absolutely no common sense. Good riddance.
As much as I hate crApple,I had to side with them against Psystar. What Psystar is doing is blatantly illegal under current law.
I dont understand why apple sues Psystar while people are hackintoshing thier pc's anyway. Why even bother ?
@godoftech
Becuase not everyone hacks a PC to run MacOSx and nobody is making MONEY from selling hardware, which is talking away business from hardware sales, which Apple sells to run OSX.