Why Apple Must Crush, Kill and Dismember Psystar

OK, I admit I was ready to go the other way on this one. I almost wrote an entry on why Psystar should cry foul and lawyer up and fight Apple in both the press and public opinion arenas. It was a knee-jerk reaction to David vs. Goliath.

Then, I actually thought about it.

The sticky part is the End User License Agreement (EULA) that has a little phrase in it that is the basis for the Apple suit: "You agree not to install, use or run the Apple software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so," Apple's EULA reads (download PDF)

Hmmmmm. That's interesting.

It's really clear on what Apple's intentions are - they moved to the Intel chip - and they just knew that someone like Psystar would pop up in the future - so they added some verbiage in there as a pure CYA move.

Yes, it is pretty chicken-sh*t - and it might not even be legal, but hey, it's their intellectual property. They are the ones that did the R&D, made the pretty icons, and ported the mother over from a reliance on the PowerPC chip. They also spent a fair amount of dough doing so as well.

They make up that investment by selling Mac boxes (and iPhones!). If they didn't challenge Psystar, then every schmo who could build a PC could start bundling their OS software (that they would also have to pay for just like Psystar) - and gosh... they might actually get some market share.

We wouldn't want that!

People who buy a Mac buy a Mac because they love the industrial design, and the seamless way that the OS plays nice with EVERY Mac peripheral, and the nice, hermetically sealed, Apple-only experience.

PC users buy motherboards and power supplies and build their own box - and then are free to install Windows (which they must buy), Ubuntu (which they must download) or both to make a machine that meets their needs.

Who ever heard of a clause in an EULA that doesn't allow people who buy a piece of software to install it on whatever hardware will run it? It's like buying a car and having the manufacturer tell you what roads you can drive on.

Ridiculous.

Or is it? The EULA is a contract after all. It's a contract between the maker of the software and the end user. Not all contracts are good ones, not all are "fair", and not all favor the person making the purchase. Just because a contract sucks for one party - does it make it illegal?

Not necessarily. It will be interesting to see if Psystar can pull this one out of the crapper or not (I'm betting not). Apple is already in a potentially embarassing place - being exposed for the buy-only-our-stuff-or-you-can't-use-our-stuff company it is.

Will people care? Will Psystar have the cash to lawyer up? Will the courts (if it even gets that far) buy Psystar's argument that the clause is illegal?

Only a whole lot of bucks to lawyers on both sides, and time will tell.

$499 Mac a Hoax?

So yesterday I wrote about a company that got a bunch of press because it was offering a $499 piece of hardware that would run Mac OS X.

I found it strange that on their store they weren't taking any order because they "couldn't process credit cards." So I went to the "contact" page and looked up their address on Google Maps. It looks like a residential neighborhood (address: 10475 NW 28th St,Doral, FL 33172)... but if you look on Zillow - there is nothing at that address.

Hmmmmm....

Maybe they're better at PR than they are at building hardware? Is it a hoax? Or worse, a fraud?

Another fishy thing - they don't take any phone orders - only orders on their website. The domain is registered to a guy (not the company itself) with the same phone numbers as on the "corporate" site - but the address is different (address: 3401 SW 104 CT, Miami, FL 33165). Again, it's an address that is based in a residential neighborhood. The domain was registered in 2000, though.

Now I was curious. So, since the name on the contact page was "PsyStar Corporation" - my next stop was the Secretary of Corporations for the State of Florida. I put in their name - BINGO - yet ANOTHER residential address (10645 SW 112 ST, MIAMI FL 33176). Looks like Roldolfo Pedraza (same name as domain registration) formed the corporation in July of 2007 - and, at least initially, was the initial officer/director along with someone named Roberto Pedraza.

While I was doing a little more digging - I decided to check out the EFI v8 emulator - the little bit of software that made it possible to load the OS X software on non-Apple hardware possible. Um, turns out the author of the software is more than slightly pissed off that they're using it - as it turns out there is a strict "not for commercial use" that is being violated.

Hmmmmm.....

And, for the most curious thing about the whole sordid affair - Apple is still mum. They haven't sued anyone yet! I mean, it's been almost 3 days!

Maybe they can't find them either...

Clone Wars Redux?

So the folks over at Psystar have come up with a piece of off-the-shelf Intel hardware that they claim will run Mac OS X.

For $499!

That's about $100 less than a Mac Mini. With twice the RAM, three times as big hard drive (compare). Hmmmm... so how did they do it? Magic - and software. The company claims that with some "minimal patching" users could install Mac OS X 10.5 on the system. "With the EFI V8 emulator it is possible to install Leopard's kernel straight from the DVD that you purchased at the Apple store barring the addition of a few drivers to ensure that everything boots and runs smoothly," according to the Psystar site.

Apparently, all the attention caught them off-guard as well - since the announcement on Tuesday, their server was down for most of the day. As of today - the site is up - but you're out of luck if you want to order because - according to their online store's homepage:

"Thank you for visiting Psystar. We're sorry but the store is temporarily down due to the fact that we are currently unable to process any credit card transactions.Please send an e-mail to support@psystar.com with the subject line "UPDATE" so that we can update you when the store comes back online. For customers who have already placed orders: if you received a confirmation e-mail then your item is in queue to be built and shipped."

Ummmm.... what? Store down because they can't process credit card transactions? Nice. Yeah, sign me up for one of those Mac clones...

If you're old (like me) - you'll remember the great Apple-sanctioned clones of 1995. Basically, Power Computing got the license for the Apple ROM, and so they were able to make it all work.

However, once Steve Jobs came back into power in July of 1997 - he bought Power Computing for $100 million in stock and quickly put the kibosh on all the clone maker's ROM licenses - effectively putting them all out of business. Nice.

There is even some question as to whether people can legally install Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware. The end user license agreement (EULA) says: "You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so."

Hmmmm... If I were a betting man (and I am) - and I was an executive at Psystar (I'm not) - I would have my legal team on speed dial. You KNOW it's only a matter of days before Apple Thugs serve a cease and desist and then start applying the Full Monte legal cluster.

Should be fun to watch, though!