Hackintosher goes titsup
Psystar no more?
Updated It's official: the Florida-based Hackingtosher that Apple's legal team has been hacking at for over a year has finally thrown in the towel.
"We respect the robe," Psystar lawyer Eugene Action told Dow Jones Newswires, referring presumably to US District Court Judge William Alsup, who issued a ruling earlier this week that prohibited the company from selling both copies of Mac OS X and Psystar's Rebel EFI utility, which allows users to install their own copies of that operating system on non-Apple machines.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
The saga began early last year when Psystar began selling its Open Computer system, which with the help of an Extensible Firmware Interface emulator allowed its customers to install Mac OS X on the Hackintosher's Hackintoshes.
That move not only prompted a legal challenge from Apple, but also pissed off the developer of the emulator utility, EFI V8, who blogged "They forgot to mention author of emulator, so it's [sic] looks like they made EFI V8. So, this is violation of my authorship rights on PC EFI V8."
That contentious beginning was a harbinger of things to come for Psystar.
The legal wrangling has been long and arduous. Psystar fought back with a countersuit - which Alsup soon threw out. Then, after court-mandated Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation failed to bring an end to the matter, Apple increased the heat by adding DMCA-violation allegations to their complaint.
And that was just the beginning. Suits, pleadings, more countersuits, bankruptcy shenanigans and other legal gymnastics continued until last month, when Alsup ruled in Apple's favor on all counts of the central suit.
As mentioned above, the death blow came when Alsup issued his injunction. Now Psystar is no more. Don't even try to access Psystar.com - it has disappeared into the digital darkness.
Psystar's attorney told Dow Jones Newswires that the company's president Rudy Pedraza will be "shutting things down immediately. They will not be in business."
At one point earlier this year, Psystar's community blog said that the company was preparing to go into trial against Apple with "guns blazin'.
But Psystar is the one who's now shot down, crashed, and burned. ®
Update
They're baaaack... As of Saturday morning, Psystar.com was back online, advertising the very Rebel EFI loader that it was supposedly enjoined from selling by Judge Alsups' decision earlier in the week - although the loader is listed as being "Out of stock."
In addition, Computerworld has reported that a second Psystar lawyer, K.A.D. Camara, has told them: "Regrettably, Mr. Action was misquoted in an early story that seems to have been picked up elsewhere. Psystar does not intend to shut down permanently."
Whether you choose to believe that Psystar's continued existence is a triumph of David over Goliath, continued hubris by EULA-skirting miscreants, or a dark plot by unnamed deep-pockets puppeteers is up to you. As for us, The Reg tires - but we'll try to get to the bottom of this whole sorry, sordid saga. Sigh...
COMMENTS
EULA SUCK !!
EULA's are a joke, I'm trying to get money back from HP for Windows 7 Home Premium OEM and they refuse to honour the EULA, insisting that they can only offer my money back for the hardware.
Even pointing out prior refunds from various companies and themselves leads to a brick wall, taking this to Trading Standards as unfair trading practices and see if it holds up in court.
Refresher course
Just a few reminders -
1 - Apple are not a monopoly - there are many competing PC brands and operating systems
2 - Explain how anyone, in the world, ever, has been 'forced' to buy a Mac
3 - Only Apple can make commuters branded as Macs. Only Kellogs can make cereal branded as Special K. This does not make them monopolies.
4 - Going via the courts and following due legal processes to shut down an infringement is not illegal (d'uh)
5 - Just about every PC manufacturer in the world is currently selling Hackintosh-capable devices. They don't advertise this as a feature. Hence no lawsuit from Apple.
6 - Anyone can buy a retail 'upgrade' copy of the Mac OS. What they then do with that disk in the privacy of their own homes - well…
7 - Psystar were selling modified versions of the Mac OS. Coders out there, try this on - someone hacks your app to run on another platform, sells it as such, and doesn't cut you in, or ask permission. Feel OK about that? Inclined to handle support calls from the folks that buy it?
8 - Psystar bought one copy of the OS and cloned it onto their machines. That's piracy
9 - Conspiracy theorists - if a competitor really wanted to establish the viability of selling Mac clones via a shall company, expect them to go about in a less obviously illegal and incompetent way. That's still possible.
10 - For those brave rebels who want to 'beat the system' (coz this is SO much more important than other global injustices and inequities), go ahead and make your own Hackintosh. Just don't expect your friendly banker to back this activity as the basis of a viable business plan.
In conclusion, get a PC, or get a Mac but whichever you choose, get a life and get over this.
time to dig
El Reg - how about some real investigative journalism and finding out who was bankrolling these guys? Me and thousands of others are really, really curious.
Oh, and I see you missed the bit about what's happened to the Florida court action they started when they started losing in California. What's happened there?
Low-rent Miami Cowboys
Welcome to South Florida, boyz'n'grrlz. The further south you go, the worse it gets. Mark 'turn over the page' Foley was born here in Palm Beach County and represented a district from just north of here. Here in Palm Beach County (a.k.a. Corruption County) multiple former county officials are currently guests of the Feds after being caught pulling fast ones. Lots more Broward County officials, including the previous Sheriff, either are or up until recently were, guests at Club Fed. Pretty much the entire Dade County government, especially including Miami city management, were with them. Bermie Madoff lived in Palm Beach. Since ol' Bernie came to light it has been revealed that he was merely the biggest Ponzi operator around, multiple others including one ol' boy who tried to skip town for Morocco in a private jet (no, I'm not making this up, look up Seth Rothsteien in Fort Lauderdale...) having been pulling similar, though smaller, schemes for years. (The ol' boy who tried to skip town in the jet was also the ol' boy who hired the ex-Sherrif once he got out of Federal stir...)
Pikers, they were. Small potatoes.
My only question: who was bankrolling them? My money's on a certain chair-throwing gentleman who really likes his developers.
Arse gravy
I can't beileve the sheer volume of flawed arguments and unmitigated bollocks being posted in this thead by all you Apple fanbois.
It really must be true that your brains just aren't connected up like the 'normal' brains of most 'ordinary' folks for you all to be able to spout such utter arse gravy and believe it so thoroughly.
