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Mac cloner Psystar claims it has entered a partial settlement with Apple, which will prevent Psystar from selling PCs preinstalled with the Mac operating system. However, Psystar isn’t completely surrendering.

As part of the settlement, the Mac cloner said it will pay Apple an amount of damages that has yet to be specified. In the Monday filing, Psystar argued to exclude Rebel EFI, a $50 piece of software that the company started selling in October, from any potential injunction. Rebel EFI is a program that enables owners of some Intel PCs to install Mac OS X onto their systems.

An excerpt from the court document [pdf] filed Monday by Psystar follows:

Psystar and Apple today entered into a partial settlement that is embodied in a stipulation that will be filed with the Court tomorrow. Psystar has agreed on certain amounts to be awarded as statutory damages on Apple’s copyright claims in exchange for Apple’s agreement not to execute on these awards until all appeals in this matter have been concluded. Moreover, Apple has agreed to voluntarily dismiss all its trademark, trade-dress, and state-law claims. This partial settlement eliminates the need for a trial and reduces the issues before this Court to the scope of any permanent injunction on Apple’s copyright claims.

….

The summary judgment in this case turned on the manner in which Psystar assembled its Open Computers.  It turned on such things as the use of the Psystar imaging station and what this Court found to be the creation of multiple copies and derivative works of Mac OS X along the way….  None of these same facts is involved in Rebel EFI.  Rebel EFI is entirely a software product.  It does not involve the assembly by Psystar of any computers…. Nor does Rebel EFI contain or include Mac OS X.  A Mac OS X DVD does not even accompany sales of Rebel EFI.  Rebel EFI consists solely of Psystar software available for sale and download through Psystar’s website.  In particular, whether sales of Rebel EFI are lawful or not depends on whether Psystar’s end users have a defense under 17 U.S.C. § 117.  This issue has not been litigated in this case at all.  Psystar’s end users do not engage in commercial use of Mac OS X and their use would qualify as use for “internal purposes” even under the standards articulated by Apple in its summary-judgment briefing.  If Psystar’s end users are protected by § 117, then Psystar cannot be violating the DMCA by selling Rebel EFI because Rebel EFI, as used by the end users, does not facilitate infringement.

In short, Psystar wishes to continue providing a DIY solution for owners to make their own Mac clones, thereby shifting the responsibility (i.e., breaking Apple’s End User License Agreement) onto the consumer.

However, it’s unlikely this workaround will pan out for Psytar. In 2008, Wired.com reported on a company called Open Tech, which said it would sell PCs bundled with instruction kits for consumers to install Mac OS X themselves. However, Carole Handler, an intellectual property lawyer with Wildman Harrold, told Wired.com that Open Tech would be subjecting itself to contributory infringement of Apple’s end-user agreement.

“Making the user instead of the company the perpetrator of any violation will not avoid the issue of a new company’s contributory infringement and/or vicarious liability for what it facilitates and enables the user to undertake,” Handler said in an e-mail interview. “This kind of workaround is not a bar to Apple bringing contributory infringement or vicarious liability claims.”

Though slightly different, Psystar’s solution could also be considering aiding the consumer to break Apple’s EULA, which reads, “You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.”

Psystar, a company based in Florida, opened its Mac clone business in April 2008. Three months later, Apple filed a lawsuit alleging Psystar was committing copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap license infringement. Judge William Alsup in November ruled that by selling PCs hacked to run Mac OS X, Psystar had violated Apple’s copyrights.

Additional details regarding the settlement will be filed today, according to Psystar.

See Also:

• Mac Cloner Psystar Sold Fewer Than 1000 Hackintoshes
• Psystar ‘Rebel EFI’ Patch Installs Snow Leopard on Any PC
• Mac Cloner Psystar Guilty of Violating Apple’s Copyright
• Judge Dismisses Mac Cloner Psystar’s Bankruptcy

Photo: Psystar

We know you don’t actually care about 99 percent of the contents of the latest Flash Player update. What you really want to know is whether those new 1080p YouTube streams will run smoothly on your machine thanks to the newly implemented graphics card video acceleration. AnandTech has come to our collective aid on that one, with an extensive testing roundup of some of the more popular desktop and mobile GPU solutions. NVIDIA’s ION scored top marks, with “almost perfect” Hulu streaming (see table above), though Anand and crew encountered some issues with ATI’s chips and Intel’s integrated GMA 4500 MHD, which they attribute to the new Flash Player’s beta status. On the OS front, although Linux and Mac OS are not yet on the official hardware acceleration beneficiary list, the wily testers found marked improvements in performance under OS X. It seems, then, that Adobe has made good on its partnership with NVIDIA, and made ION netbooks all the more scrumptious in the process, while throwing a bone to the Mac crowd, but leaving the majority of users exercising the virtue of patience until the finalized non-beta Player starts making the rounds in a couple of months. Hit the read link for further edification.

Filed under: Software

Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 beta GPU acceleration tested, documented originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been awhile, but we’ve got ourselves a brand spanking new OS X update in the mix, 10.6.2 for Snow Leopard. So far the biggest change here seems to be fixing that nagging guest account deletion bug — and thank goodness for that. As for whether or not it supports Intel Atom processors, last we heard this morning it wasn’t going to be there, but we’re gonna have wait and see now that it’s officially hit the nets. Leopard users who haven’t made the upgrade also get a gift today, in the form of a security update. 10.6.2 release notes after the break.

Update: We just installed it — it took forever and a day on one of our machines, and sped by reasonably quick on another. Everything seems okay otherwise, how about you?

Update 2: We’ve gotten enough reports to call it — Atom support is out. Sorry, hackintosh community.

[Via Mac Rumors, thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Read – 10.6.2 notes
Read – Intel Atom still unsupported on Mac OS X 10.6.2 seeds

Continue reading Mac OS X 10.6.2 update out on the prowl (update: Atom support is gone)

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software

Mac OS X 10.6.2 update out on the prowl (update: Atom support is gone) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows fans expecting Apple to let Microsoft have its moment in the sun next week when Windows 7 launches should probably know better by now — the Mac maker is actually planning a marketing counter-offensive to hit alongside 7’s debut. According to Phil Schiller, the convoluted upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7 represents a big opportunity for Apple, since users have to back everything up and reformat. “Any user that reads all those steps is probably going to freak out. If you have to go through all that, why not just buy a Mac?” Well — we’re sure most of you can think of several reasons. Of course, Microsoft has long said that most people will actually get Windows 7 when they purchase a new machine, which is one reason we’re seeing such an absolute flood of interesting and innovative new PC hardware — but Phil seems to remember that was also the company line about Vista, and homeboy isn’t backing down. “We’ve been through these transitions before, and no matter how you look at it-it’s still Windows.” Harsh burn, amigo. Any last predictions? “I expect Snow Leopard will have an amazing upgrade rate, and Windows 7 won’t.” We thought you might say something like that. Good thing we’re giving Steve Ballmer a chance to respond live on the air next week, no?

[Via AppleInsider]

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Phil Schiller on Windows 7: ‘No matter how you look at it, it’s still Windows’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple just made a statement about that nasty Snow Leopard Guest Account bug that deletes user data — it’s not much, but at least the people in charge are working on things.

We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix.

Peachy — now if Apple would just figure out how to fix all those broken Time Capsules holding the backups, we’d be all set.

Filed under: Software

Apple aware of Snow Leopard accounts bug that kills data, is working on a fix originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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