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Fire Up The Lawyers: Company Makes Illegal Mac Clone

Posted in Apple by Dan at 11:38 am

A perviously unknown company called “Psystar” is making claims that they will sell a $399 “OpenMac” computer that will allow you install Leopard’s kernel straight from the DVD that you purchased at the Apple store barring the addition of a few drivers.

The machines specs are as follows:

  • 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • 2GB of DDR2 667 memory
  • Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics
  • 20x DVD+/-R Drive
  • 4 USB Ports
  • 250GB 7200RPM Drive

Now we all know that you can install MacOS 10.5 on an ordinary PC, but the legality of such a procedure is a grey area. This is the first time a company is emulating the Mac EFI firmware to achieve a true Mac clone. Sure Apple’s crack legal team have begin firing up the old C&D machine as we speak.

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12 Comments, Comment or Trackback

  1. Hitsuji

    no response fromserver :(

    Apr 14th, 2008

  2. Paul B

    site taken down:(

    Apr 14th, 2008

  3. jaredmellentine

    Here’s the Google cache: http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:8-nCAPGr2SYJ:www.psystar.com/

    Apr 14th, 2008

  4. jaredmellentine

    You can get the rest of the cached pages here: http://www.google.com/search?q=+site%3Awww.psystar.com

    Apr 14th, 2008

  5. Ian

    Seems to me that the only significant legal issue is the preinstallation of Leopard. If they just sell the computer without an OS, it’s just a collection of parts, and it leaves the user to break the EULA. I guess the name OpenMac is also fuzzy, seeing as Apple goes after anything remotely resembling their trademarks.

    I wonder too if they could just buy and resell Apple logic boards with a case and parts. I remember XtremeMac trying to do that many years ago (never actually shipped though, if I remember correctly)

    Apr 14th, 2008

  6. Mike Meyer

    Why does this headline say “Illegal Mac Clone?” Has this issue been settled in some court I’m not aware of? Is “Dan” a judge or even an attorney? This just in: “Blogger jumps to conclusion and (allegedly) posts Illegal headline.”

    Apr 14th, 2008

  7. Ryan

    the website isn’t down anymore, i don’t know why all the news sites are saying it “disappeared”… it probably just went down from a huge traffic hit. anyways, it’s up now

    Apr 14th, 2008

  8. Nigel

    “Robert” from Pystar, is taking it to court and comparing it to: “What if Honda said that, after you buy their car, you could only drive it on the roads they said you could?”

    The idiot said “after you buy their car”, so the ‘driver’ should have been aware of it.

    i.e. he should have been aware of the Mac OS X EULA before he tried selling this and stirring trouble.

    And every Apple product has that “Mac” is a trademark of Apple, Inc., whether he loopholed it by calling the computer OpenMac, but I don’t blame Apple for being pissy.

    They make ’sexy’ and ‘quality’ products, to have a $399 computer come out could potentially ruin the Mac reputation (apart from smugness), can you blame them for wanting to get rid of this?

    BTW: I am a Mac user, and relatively smug about it, so I can say that based on me.

    Apr 14th, 2008

  9. YiQin

    It seems to me that “Nigel” is a bit worried? if apple hardware/design is as good as you claim then they should have nothing to fear from Pystar or other companies using their OS. The computer can’t be called a Mac or any other of the trademarked names. This could ruin Apple’s —– business plan but would potentially give them more market share.

    Oh no, would it be possible that some company could make better hardware than apple? Its my understanding -feel free to correct me- that other companies already make most of the hardware for Apple’s products, I’m sure some of them would love to do so out of contract and sell the products themselves. That would cut Apple’s protits.

    I wish Pystar luck with their legal battle….

    Apr 15th, 2008

  10. Gary Bart

    Ian, I don’t know what you think you are referring to in your comment about XtremeMac. Our company has never made or even debated making such a product offering. You must be remembering something from another company. Just setting the record straight.

    Gary Bart
    CEO
    XtremeMac

    Apr 15th, 2008

  11. Ian

    Gary - My apologies :) Yes, I know the company I was referring to isn’t yours, but it either had a very similar name or the product itself was labeled the Xtreme Mac. I remember it being announced around 1997 or so and promised to be a 1200mhz computer. Basically, the company would buy a stock Apple computer, then using the motherboard add on a new processor and accessories, thus getting around the licensing requirement. The case looked god-awful, something like an old microphone from the 1930s. Anyway, sorry about the confusion.

    Apr 15th, 2008

  12. Lisa

    http://gizmodo.com/380488/psystar-exposed-looks-like-a-hoax

    Apr 17th, 2008

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