Filed under: Hardware, Software, Snow Leopard
Psystar to pursue OEM licensing program despite legal woes
Legal issues? What legal issues?
Psystar has announced that it plans to license its virtualization technology for OS X to third-party vendors despite its continuing legal issues with Apple. The Psystar OEM Licensing Program, designed to allow Intel machines to run Snow Leopard -- actually, certified machines from Psystar running the company's Darwin Universal Boot Loader -- can support up to six operating systems at a time in a single piece of hardware.
"Once a product is certified, consumers can purchase it off the shelf or through standard channels and when labeled Psystar Certified would allow the installation of Snow Leopard simply by inserting the retail OS X DVD," Psystar said in a press release issued today.
The cost of this licensing program is not available at this time.
Apple and Psystar go to trial in January 2010.
[MacDailyNews via Apple Insider]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
oZ said 4:01PM on 10-05-2009
Heh. This is so fun to watch.
I honestly wish them the best.
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bill cant fart said 4:15PM on 10-05-2009
How come my Macbook can't boot 6 OSs?
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colouroflight said 5:20PM on 10-05-2009
It can.
bill cant fart said 10:26PM on 10-08-2009
Not with Boot Camp. I could only get 3 on using Wubi on the XP partition. When I tried to use rEFIt it kept breaking the XP partition.
bobmutch said 4:34PM on 10-05-2009
To funny! It is a good idea though. A ceritifed box with the bootloader installed when you can select that bootloader and insert your apple os x cd that you just picked up at the apple store and in 30 mins you have mac os x installed on your computer and can do minor updates. Sweet idea!
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x23 said 6:59PM on 10-05-2009
yeah. that will be awesome. just the other day i was thinking :
'you know what would be fantastic? $300 OS upgrades... and the fun and good times to be had by all with the addition of serial number authentication!'
the only people that think this is a good idea are the same people that wouldn't actually be hassled by this to begin with. the people that will be hassled the most would be the people that actually buy their software.
or the addition of actual hardware locking on the OS.
Psystar 'winning' punishes both the legitimate Apple consumers *and* the people that enabled Psystar to exist in the first place : the hackintosh community.
i see nothing noble about anything Psystar has done so far.
Bernard Ramsey said 7:19PM on 10-05-2009
x23, $300 for an OS really isn't that bad if it's a good OS. Paying 2 to 3 X more for hardware that has a certain white glow to it is a bad deal. Being stuck with an awful trackpad is a bad deal (Unibody). Having a logic board go out is a bad deal. Having no screen glare/matte options, no swappable dual hard drives, no firewire port, at vary times throughout the Apple product line is a bad deal. Having no choice on what hardware I can run the world's best operating system is a bad deal. Sell Mac OS X alone and let's see if competition proves that Apple hardware really is all they say it's cracked up to be. I guarantee you Apple hardware quality (if anything) will improve. Their customer service is great, hardware questionable.
colouroflight said 5:19PM on 10-05-2009
Go Psystar!
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Joseph said 5:31PM on 10-05-2009
you do realize that the clone wars was severely crippling to apple and set them back substantially. This could help end apple if they actually allowed it again. Apple is a hardware company, the software is just a perk and subsidized by the hardware. Their business model is not for us to decide, it's for them. They did it the way everyone wanted once and it was detrimental.
Mike said 5:50PM on 10-05-2009
im very surprised these guys are still going at it and not behind jail.
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liquidmark said 6:33PM on 10-05-2009
ok, they need to go to jail. Right now. I can't begin to explain how illegal this is.
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mdzorn said 7:00PM on 10-05-2009
I find it quite ironic that Psystar licenses their software to circumvent Apple's licensing conditions! Slapping a "Psystar Certified" logo on the box when they obviously want to deny Apple the same right is just ludicrous.
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pika2000 said 1:51AM on 10-06-2009
"license its virtualization technology"? WTF? It's OSx86 community's hard work for God's sake. Psystar is simply a leecher, trying to profit from a freebie. What a bunch of douche.
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LAGal said 10:41PM on 10-09-2009
yep. it was information freely given with the caveat that no one could use it without substantial change and make a profit from. much like the BSD that Apple used as part of the base for Mac OSX (adding their own work as well).
And apparently said community has contact Psystar over this usage issue before. I'm sure they will be happy to know that Apple is tired of the dancing and as filed for a summary judgement in the new Snow Leopard case. And after they get it, they will likely use it to try to get a summary judgement in the original Florida case. And have it established once in for all that no one has the right to clone Macs until Apple decides to restart that program themselves, even if they never do.
Liquidmark said 7:09AM on 10-06-2009
'Paying 2 to 3 X more for hardware that has a certain white glow to it is a bad deal'
OMG! Look at you troll!
'Being stuck with an awful trackpad is a bad deal'
Too bad the multitouch trackpad is actually the best. Seriously. I can't even touch a regular touchpad anymore. They are so limited.
'Having a logic board go out is a bad deal.'
Ever heard of a warranty? As long as you didn't d anything to cause it to go out, there should be no problem.
'no firewire port,'
Wait, what?
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html
http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html
http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html
Only model that doesn't have a firewire port is the MB AIR. Your info is out of date.
'Having no choice on what hardware I can run the world's best operating system is a bad deal.'
You are a whiner. There's nothing wrong with Apple's hardware quality. They have won numerous QUALITY awards. What you want Apple to do is lower their standards so you can get in on the cheap.
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Bernard Ramsey said 6:09PM on 10-06-2009
No, not a troll. I'm a human and an avid Mac user. All of my points were valid and some still are. The G4s I owned had massive logic board problems, there are thousands of posts on the trackpad being too responsive in the unibody, and we pay a premium for design over function. Granted, I love Apple's products, but Apple limits what their software can do by limiting our hardware choices. Case in point, again: Where's my tablet? It's been years and I'm still waiting.
David said 2:32AM on 10-10-2009
Basically Psystar can do this legally.. It’s under the first sale doctrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine) Basically if you buy the software you have a right do do anything you want with it. It’s the same if you bought a CD and then resold it to another person. Once you buy whatever you have a right to re-sale.
(The first-sale doctrine is a limitation on copyright that was recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1908 and subsequently codified in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 109. The doctrine allows the purchaser to transfer (i.e., sell or give away) a particular lawfully made copy of the copyrighted work without permission once it has been obtained. This means that the copyright holder's rights to control the change of ownership of a particular copy end once that copy is sold, as long as no additional copies are made. This doctrine is also referred to as the "first sale rule" or "exhaustion rule.")
Unless Psystar is making copies of the software they have a right to sell their PC’s with the original disk purchased from Apple.
If Apple wants to stop this then they should not sell their software.. They should pre-install and never make the disks available to the public.
Apple is powerful but they do not have enough power to over turn the Supreme court.
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LAGal said 10:44PM on 10-09-2009
actually no, the DMCA prohibits the very functions of the boot loader. making what they are doing illegal. Regardless of whether you believe that First Sale applies to software or not.