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Psystar - Another Step Closer to Death

Posted by Daniel Shain

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A US District Judge recently threw out the bulk of Psystar's latest countersuit, while agreeing with the bulk of Apple's charges. Looks like the end is neigh for this particular hackintosh distributor... and why do I get the sense that the hackintosh community at large won't be shedding too many tears?

We last talked about Psystar a little while ago when they decided to release their Rebel EFI - or I should say, sell their EFI for $50. Let's set aside the fact that we were initially skeptical and that we've heard bad reviews... we've got bigger fish to fry. In case you missed it, not long after the EFI was launched both Apple and Psystar asked US District Judge William Aslup of San Francisco to rule on some of the core issues ahead of the January 2010 court date. On November 12th he did, and as with just about every single official legal ruling we've ever seen, the results came out badly for Psystar.

One of Psystar's major defenses was based on the first-sale doctrine, which roughly states that once somebody buys something, nobody gets to tell them what to do with what they've bought. That's all well and good, but according to Aslup, it doesn't apply here.

"Even assuming arguendo that Psystar was the owner of a copy, the first-sale defense fails here. Section 109 provides immunity only when copies are "lawfully made." The copies at issue here were not lawfully manufactured with the authorization of the copyright owner. As stated, Psystar made an unauthorized copy of Mac OS X from a Mac mini that was placed onto an "imaging station" and then used a "master copy" to make many more unauthorized copies that were installed on individual Psystar computers. The first-sale defense does not apply to those unauthorized copies."

In short, the copies are illegal, so it doesn't even matter if the distribution method is legal, since it's illegal to distribute something you shouldn't legally have. One of Psystar's earlier defenses, dealing with antitrust issues, has been long since dismissed, and the company has few legal legs remaining to stand on.

With the January 2010 court date looming, it can't be long for Psystar now. Then again, I've said that before, so who knows? Regardless of the legal precedents they may set, one thing Psystar has certainly done is shed some publicity on the whole hackintosh scene... not necessarily positive publicity mind you, and given that hackintosh programmers in various corners suspect Psystar ripped off their code and sold it commercially, it seems safe to say most of that community will be happy when this story finally ends.

Via crn, and check out groklaw's transcription of the case here

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