Psystar finally hangs its gloves as judge denies sale of its Open Computers

Sep 30, 2011 07:07 GMT  ·  By

Apple has won an injunction against Mac cloner Psystar following a three year long trial that ended with Apple being granted the right to continue to restrict its operating system to Macintosh computers.

In late 2009, US District Judge William Alsup ruled that by distributing Mac OS X with its machines, Psystar violated Apple's copyrights.

Psystar countered those claims but the court dismissed them and sealed the documents at Apple’s request.

The maker of Mac clones never appealed the ruling but argued that Apple was engaging in anti-competitive practices involving the misuse of copyrighted materials.

Psystar claimed at the time that it was merely bundling copies of Mac OS X with its Open Computers, and believed their practices should be protected under the First Sale doctrine.

However, Judge Schroeder did not think so and took Apple’s side this week saying that Psystar hadn't shown any evidence that Apple restricted creativity or competition via the OS X licensing agreement.

"Apple's [software license agreement] does not restrict competitor's ability to develop their own software, nor does it preclude customers from using non-Apple components with Apple computers. Instead, Apple's [software license agreement] merely restricts the use of Apple's own software to its own hardware," Schroeder said. "Psystar produces its own computer hardware and it is free to develop its own computer software."

A Chicago-based intellectual property lawyer said the decision was "kind of a big deal," according to a report by Ars Technica.

"This is an important win for Apple because it bolts down the legal substrate for Apple's tightly controlled, closed ecosystem,” said Evan Brown, IP attorney. “Since the courts have found that Apple is not playing unfairly by keeping its users from loading Apple software onto non-Apple hardware, the company can likewise maintain the technological controls to ensure that only approved applications are used in connection with the operating systems," Brown told Ars Technica.

"A world in which there were legitimate marketplaces for third-party hardware running Apple software would greatly lower the entry barrier for hackers and enthusiasts to play outside of the rules. This court decision keeps those rules firmly in place," added Brown.