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Psystar Sues Apple!

2:06 pm, August 26th, 2008, Leigh McMullen

coockoo.png

In what can only be considered a turn of logic from an alternative “evil twin” universe, Hackintosh maker Psystar answered Apple’s cease and desist lawsuit of July 3th with their own alleging restraint of trade and antitrust violations.

via Computerworld

// Opinion Follows //

It’s been long anticipated that  Psystar would play the “Antitrust Card” in defense of its illegal activities.  The only thing is, it’s not illegal to have a monopoly. The key predicate to an antitrust suit is that the consumer must in some way be harmed by the monopolistic behavior of the defendant.  Rudy Pedraza, Psystar’s president summed up their consumer harm argument by saying: “It’s not that people don’t want to use Mac OS X, but they’re not open spending an exorbitant amount of money for something that’s essentially generic hardware.”

So that’s it, ‘the Apple’s hardware is too expensive’ argument we’ve heard time and time again, and have time and time again refuted. On a direct feature for feature comparison with Sony, HP or IBM, Apple hardware is no more expensive than the competition.

Our industry is FULL of monopolies that no one seems to disagree with, examples follow:

  • Tivo has a monopoly on the Tivo OS, in that it too can only be employed on Tivo or licensed 3rd party hardware.
  • Sony has a monopoly on the PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and PSP operating systems and regulates very closely the hardware they’re allowed to run on
  • IBM has a monopoly on mainframes and the mainframe Z-OS
  • even Microsoft has a monopoly on XBox OS and limits the hardware it can run on

While I can understand that free spirited hackers take unbrage at being locked out, there is nothing inherently wrong or illegal with Apple’s strategy of controlling the whole widget. Monopoly “sounds” bad on it’s own, but in Apple’s case they’re not abusing their power.

Posted by Leigh McMullen in Apple, Hardware, Hardware Hacks | Comment on this article

About the author

LeighMcMullen

Leigh McMullen leads the Advisory Services & Strategy practices for the professional services arm of one of the Big-Five firms. He has written several books that would cure any insomnia you might have, and is an avid Mac junkie.

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4 comments

    P.S. thanks to Pete for the tip.

    Leigh McMullen, on August 26th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

    [...] declined to comment. Cult of Mac has some interesting examples of other [...]

    Psystar’s Attorney Reports an Answer and Counterclaim Filed | World of Apple, on August 26th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

    [...] nulla di illegale in questa scelta o in questo “monopolio”, se preferite. Come suggerisce Leigh McMullen di Cult of Mac, procedendo in questa direzione, perché non lamentarsi allora delle [...]

    Psystar denuncia Apple, uomo morde cane - TheAppleLounge, on August 27th, 2008 at 1:46 am

    “The only thing is, it’s not illegal to have a monopoly. The key predicate to an antitrust suit is that the consumer must in some way be harmed by the monopolistic behavior of the defendant.”

    Exactly, these guys are acting like bratty kids. Wtf?

    Church of Apple, on August 27th, 2008 at 11:48 am