On CBS MoneyWatch: Deal or no deal? 8 lousy 'bargains'
BNET Business Network:
BNET
TechRepublic
ZDNet

April 16th, 2008

Lawyer: Psystar may be 'very hard to stop'

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 3:19 pm

Categories: Clone, Legal

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Wired Inc., EULA, Apple Inc., Psystar, Desktops, Hardware, Jason D. O'Grady

Lawyer: Psystar may be ‘very hard to stop’Bryan Gardiner at Wired spoke to some attorneys about Psystar, the Miami IT firm that shocked the Mac world this week with the announcement of a US$400 Mac clone – a first in more than a decade.

Previous Psystar coverage:

The consensus among attorneys contacted by Wired is that…

breaking a EULA technically isn’t illegal (it’s not a signed or executable contract) and penalties tend to vary from state to state, making it very hard to stop.

The article also takes an interesting approach, saying that instead of battling Psystar in court, Apple could make their lives difficult in software. A known sore spot for any Apple CPU upgrade:

“Apple issues regular updates to Leopard,” Abhyanker says. “Future revisions might require massive changes to the way [Psystar] sells software in this virtual environment and usually these things don’t last long unless there’s some sort of agreement.”

Jason D. O'GradyJason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.

Email Jason D. O'Grady

Subscribe to The Apple Core via Email alerts or RSS.

  • Talkback
  • Most Recent of 25 Talkback(s)
not entirely true.
The vendor MUST make the agreement available before purchase. That doesn't mean he has to shove it in your face; it could be something that you may view on his website or ask to have mailed to you. ... (Read the rest)
Posted by: nancyjones36507@... Posted on: 09/30/08 You are currently: a Guest | | Terms of Use
Now we just need to see if the company is real!  Stuka | 04/16/08
RE: "To Lawyer: Comment on this Apple clone thing and get free publicity"  Jim Gleeson | 04/16/08
RE: Lawyer: Psystar may be 'very hard to stop'  Telix | 04/16/08
moot not mute  Eriamjh | 04/17/08
$900 brick. ????  mrlinux | 04/17/08
Not likely  laura.b | 04/17/08
What price go to do with ???  mrlinux | 04/17/08
Notice the smiley  laura.b | 04/17/08
$900 fills a niche  HarryProgrammer | 04/17/08
Slaps Psystar on the back! Good Job!!! grin  i2fun@... | 04/26/08
Breaking EULA Not Illegal???  NASyoBusiness | 04/17/08
Breaking Eula not illegal  gregzdnet | 04/17/08
Are you 12  Davinchy23 | 04/17/08
He is kind of correct though  voska1 | 04/17/08
may not be binding even then  Dr_Zinj | 04/18/08
You have faith in humanity? How touching... (nt)  Henry Miller | 04/17/08
Actually, I beleive  No_Ax_to_Grind | 04/17/08
Need to understand copyrights  voska1 | 04/17/08
RE: Breaking EULA Not Illegal  Mavtech | 04/18/08
The question is  Ken_z | 04/17/08
Issue at hand  aoresteen | 04/17/08
Non-Business End Users Don't Give a Rat's Butt About EULAs  Dr_Zinj | 04/18/08
Correct--not illegal to BREAK AN AGREEMENT  nancyjones36507@... | 04/18/08
RE: Lawyer: Psystar may be 'very hard to stop'  jefftw1854@... | 05/03/08
not entirely true.  nancyjones36507@... | 09/30/08

What do you think?

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

advertisement

Recent Entries

advertisement

Archives

Favorite Links

ZDNet Blogs

White Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

Enterprise Applications

  • Check out some of the easiest and most powerful ways to boost productivity while saving money on your application infrastructure. See ZDNet's comprehensive Enterprise Application resource center, now!
  • New Online Dashboard
  • Read about top issues IT decision-makers face every day, plus get cost effective solutions to real life IT problems. Oracle Topline