Michael Dolan Dot Com

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Psystar, speculation, press and absolutely no legal precendent to stand on

It amazes me how much coverage Psystar gets in the press and how much people want to speculate about its future. Yes, I’d love to run OS X on any hardware I choose, but that doesn’t matter one bit here. What matters here is intellectual property, copyrights, patents, trademarks and licensing. It’s hard to think of an area of IP law Psystar is not violating doing what it does with Mac OS X. Sure, I’d love to see them win so I can run OS X on my PC tomorrow, but I fear for what impact such a nonsensical precedent would create. In fact, I would not want to see Psystar win because of the irreversibly bad precedent it could create.

Counterclaim for antitrust?? First, this case will be nothing comparable to the Microsoft tying case. Just remove that fantasy from your mental casework right now. Second, where does this go to next? Should auto makers stop tying the onboard OS and drivers for your car to function from the hardware? Should your TV come with a separate fee and license for the OS and drivers? Finally, does Psystar realize this flies in the face of the entire industry practice (e.g. try buying an HP laptop – what OS options are tied to it?). How is HP any different than Apple?

This is pure nonsense and I can’t believe Psystar is still around let alone with enough funding to hire lawyers. It was a stupid idea from the start and I hope this case (and the rampant media speculation) will catch up with reality fast.