Psystar Guilty in Violating Apple Copyright & DMCA

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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On Friday, Apple won a judgement against Mac-clone maker Psystar for violating Apple’s copyright and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Check out the BusinessWeek article for more details. Pwnt!

Judge Alsup sidestepped Psystar's claim that it was protected by the first sale doctrine, which generally gives the buyer of a protected work the right to resell it without the permission of, or any payment to, the copyright holder. The judge said first sale only applies to legal copies and that the way in which Psystar had modified the software to let it run on clones meant that the copies did not meet this standard. The judge rejected out of hand Psystar's claims that it made legal use of Apple's trademarks and that Apple has misued it copyrights.
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I don't understand how they violated the DMCA. They're emulating EFI... it's not like they're using hacked kernels or anything.

Can you seek an appeal for a civil trial?
 
dr.stevil said:
I don't understand how they violated the DMCA. They're emulating EFI... it's not like they're using hacked kernels or anything.

Can you seek an appeal for a civil trial?
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Yes, but based on the BW post, I don't think it will matter, because Psystar will be out of business within a month.
 
dr.stevil said:
I don't understand how they violated the DMCA. They're emulating EFI... it's not like they're using hacked kernels or anything.

Can you seek an appeal for a civil trial?
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If they had to do any reverse engineering to figure out how to emulate EFI, then they violated DMCA which covers reverse engineering as thoroughly as it does breaking encryption, etc.
 
ekierce said:
If they had to do any reverse engineering to figure out how to emulate EFI, then they violated DMCA which covers reverse engineering as thoroughly as it does breaking encryption, etc.
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Also - insofar as appealing a civil trial goes, you certainly can. BUT, there are a lot of restrictions, for instance, you can be ordered in some cases to put up a cash bond in the amount of the judgment prior to the appeal proceeding.
 
Apple wins! Yep, now everybody has to go back to downloading illegal copies of Mac OSX that Apple receives no money for rather than having Psystar buy legitimate copies of OSX and install it for people.
 
Ualdayan said:
Apple wins! Yep, now everybody has to go back to downloading illegal copies of Mac OSX that Apple receives no money for rather than having Psystar buy legitimate copies of OSX and install it for people.
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You would think that they're at least happy that Psystar bought legitimate copies and didn't outright steal the software. Then again, a use agreement is a use agreement, and I'm pretty sure it's explicitly stated that OS X disks are meant for Apple computers only, and that any use outside of this is a violation of the agreement. Technically, Apple is fully within their right to rid the earth of Psystar so long as it continues to sell OS X machines without any kind of explicit permission.

Sad, but that's how it works, no ifs ands or buts. How the hacking community responds to this is another story, people are still going to pirate OS X regardless.
 
can't say i'm too surprised by this outcome.. Funny how apple hasn't released their OS to the rest of the x86 world but i'm pretty sure that they know nobody would buy their overpriced hardware any more. I went into an apple store recently and had a great time shit talking on the hardware.. ie talking loudly with my friend how we had better hardware than what they are trying to sell for $3000 and spent a fraction of that cost.

it's a fucking status symbol and nothing else.. it's buying the Audi, even though the VW is the same car.. people and their egos are sad really
 
ekierce said:
If they had to do any reverse engineering to figure out how to emulate EFI, then they violated DMCA which covers reverse engineering as thoroughly as it does breaking encryption, etc.
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Actually, reverse engineering for interoperability *IS* legal. The DMCA doesn't govern reverse engineering at all. What the DMCA does say is that it is illegal to bypass any form of DRM or access control.
 
Our couurt system sucks anymore... Err um DCMA sucks donkey balls.
 
kllrnohj said:
Actually, reverse engineering for interoperability *IS* legal. The DMCA doesn't govern reverse engineering at all. What the DMCA does say is that it is illegal to bypass any form of DRM or access control.
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And, as logic would dictate, if you have to reverse engineer that access control or DRM, you are prohibited from doing so by the DMCA.
 
Emission said:
...and I'm pretty sure it's explicitly stated that OS X disks are meant for overpriced, mid-high-end machines that use commercially-available parts that can be had for 3 times cheaper when not purchased from Apple only...
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Fix't. :p
 
From what i understood they did not modify OS X at all... they simply provided a base to install it over ?
 
Ualdayan said:
Apple wins! Yep, now everybody has to go back to downloading illegal copies of Mac OSX that Apple receives no money for rather than having Psystar buy legitimate copies of OSX and install it for people.
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This
 
Ualdayan said:
Apple wins! Yep, now everybody has to go back to downloading illegal copies of Mac OSX that Apple receives no money for rather than having Psystar buy legitimate copies of OSX and install it for people.
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Fixed:

Apple wins! Yep, now everybody has to go back to downloading illegal copies of Mac OSX that Apple receives no money for rather than having Psystar buy upgrade only licenses of OSX and install it on bare hardware for people while pretending they weren't doing anything illegal.
 
I just think its horsecrap that Apple accuses Pystar of being so bad, yet Bootcamp, which Apples calls a feature, does exactly the same thing to run Windows on non-PC compatible hardware.

BTW, does mean I broke the Apple law because I upgraded my Mac with a harddrive and memory that I bought at Fry's? The hardware does not say Apple on it, so that means running OSX on is against the Apple law?
 
Did anyone actually think that Apple would loose this.. ? Although it would've been an interesting outcome if Psystar won.
 
westrock2000 said:
I just think its horsecrap that Apple accuses Pystar of being so bad, yet Bootcamp, which Apples calls a feature, does exactly the same thing to run Windows on non-PC compatible hardware.

BTW, does mean I broke the Apple law because I upgraded my Mac with a harddrive and memory that I bought at Fry's? The hardware does not say Apple on it, so that means running OSX on is against the Apple law?
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Macs are 100% PC compatible. Under the skin they are an intel processor on an intel chipset with regular pc components. Bootcamp is a GUI to partition the HDD safely and install the proper drivers.
 
4b5eN+EE said:
Macs are 100% PC compatible. Under the skin they are an intel processor on an intel chipset with regular pc components. Bootcamp is a GUI to partition the HDD safely and install the proper drivers.
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With a Mac and a blank harddrive, you can put a Windows disc in, boot straight to the disc, and load Windows 100% the same as you could on a PC?

I was under the impression something needed to translate the EFI to PC BIOS operation.
 
westrock2000 said:
BTW, does mean I broke the Apple law because I upgraded my Mac with a harddrive and memory that I bought at Fry's? The hardware does not say Apple on it, so that means running OSX on is against the Apple law?
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No-one answered his question.

I'm not familiar enough with Apple's rules to give a definitive answer......I don't buy, fix, or use their products at all.
 
westrock2000 said:
With a Mac and a blank harddrive, you can put a Windows disc in, boot straight to the disc, and load Windows 100% the same as you could on a PC?
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yep, windows 7 even has all the drivers built in :)
 
Monkey34 said:

No-one answered his question.

I'm not familiar enough with Apple's rules to give a definitive answer......I don't buy, fix, or use their products at all.
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My guess is that hardware is defined as an apple box with an apple MB.

Regardless, I think that Apple would argue that you must have a license for OSX before you can buy another license. And to be clear that means that the original license must have been installed on the Mac that you're installing the new OS onto at some point.

Thus, if you have an imac and you buy a new HD and install the new version of the OS on it, you're still legal.

Of course neither Apple, nor it's most ardent fan boys, ever say that their prices are upgrade only prices. Thus Windows Non upgrade prices are often quoted when comparing OS X to Windows.

Nevertheless, I read somewhere else that had Psystar been a bit smarter, they might have gotten away with it.

Sell PC with no OS
Include utility to do whatever is required to allow an unopened copy of OS X work on that PC.
Sell Copies of OS X separately.
Sell OEM copies of Windows.
 
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