27 August 2008, 13:31

Mac cloner Psystar hits back at Apple with counter-claim

Lawyers acting for Florida-based company Psystar, which is offering Mac clones for sale, have reacted with a counter-claim on Tuesday in response to Apple's suit of early July. They will be claiming in the district court of North California that the licensing conditions for Mac OS X violate two federal laws on free competition, namely the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act, saying that coupling an operating system with a specific computer is likely to restrain competition. Apple, they say, is misusing its copyrights in order to defend what Psystar say is its hardware monopoly.

Psystar is represented by Carr & Ferrell, who are specialists in competition law. They are pursuing a strategy of having the court declare these licensing conditions unlawful, which they believe would largely nullify Apple's suit. Psystar is arguing that it is using a legally acquired licence to the operating system, along with open source software that is not subject to the EULA licensing, and not illegal copies or modified master discs. Psystar are continuing to sell Open Computer PCs and servers with Mac OS X preinstalled.

(djwm)

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