Psystar; the company in the US that offers Mac clones, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in a counterstrike, claiming that Steve Jobs’ enterprise employs a load of hype, dubious licensing schemes/technology for the purpose of dominating the Mac-scene.

The Psystar “Hackintosh”

If Psystar were to win this lawsuit then the face of personal computing as we know it could dramatically receive a fair amount of plastic-surgery: The monopolisation that Apple insist upon enforcing on its customers will end, and Jobsweh will no longer be able to exploit the Apple fanbois/girls with his money-grabbing greed and vastly-exaggerated profits which he currently makes. If Psystar do win then it could mean that Apple technologies become a kind of Open Source environment – Something that Jobsweh has gone out of his way to avoid so far.

Psystar’s angle, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court for San Francisco, is Apple “has engaged in certain anticompetitive behaviour and/or other actions that are in violation of the public policy underlying the federal copyright laws.”

Apple originally filed a lawsuit against the comparatively tiny Psystar in July 2008: Psystar clones Macs; that is to say it sells copies of Macs, complete with Leopard, for their real value plus an acceptable profit-margin – Rather than the massively-inflated rip-off prices incurred in buying from Jobsweh and company. Apple claimed that this violates their copyright of the Mac OS and want the court to order Psystar to stop.

Psystar counter this argument by stating that Macs are a cult-monopoly, and that Apple dominates that sector of the market by employing  questionable licences, and uses crafty advertising to create a cult following of their non-interchangeable technologies, maximising their profit-margins in so doing.

In essence; Psystar is accusing Apple of acting anti-competitively in its monopolisation of the Mac and related products. Among other such anticompetitive practices; Apple embeds code into the Mac OS that will brick third-party machines by disrupting the kernel.

Personally I hope Psystar win, and succeed in defeating the greedy Jobsweh who is cheating his customers and breaking the law in some regards.

There have been a number of multi-million-dollar cases of antitrust filed against Microsoft for anticompetitive behaviour of a lesser nature; nearly all of which have succeeded. On the basis of that I think it only fair that Apple are forced to abandon their current policies, pay Psystar’s legal costs, and that Psystar are awarded a small figure in damages.

“…And the Overlord [Jobsweh]…shall strike as a thief in the night…”

2 Machinations 16:45

Whatever happens; this high-profile case is playing for some high stakes: If Psystar were to win it could open the floodgates and make the Mac environment virtually open source; competing with Linux, and even affecting Microsoft too.

Go Psystar – Yay! This blog fully supports and encourages Psystar in its attempts to thwart the anticompetitive and illegal endeavours of the greedy unethical Jobsweh; god of all things Apple.

Other related posts from other blogs:-

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/07/apple-demands-t.html

http://www.davidrisley.com/2008/04/15/openmac-psystar-reeks-of-a-publicity-stunt/

http://www.pcmech.com/article/psystar-doing-software-patches-flips-off-apple/

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1685

http://www.pcmech.com/article/psystar-gets-the-bejeezus-sued-out-of-them-by/

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