Hit the Road Mac

Well it looks like Apple has its hands full with piracy issues. After the whole rash of iClones (knockoffs of their iPhones), Apple has had to deal with Pystar's knockoffs of their Mac computers.

I am not that technically savvy, but taking Apple's software and applying to a PC is wrong. When you install the software, it warns you that it is only licensed to run on Apple products. Pystar basically uses a fully licensed unmodified version of the software, but that installation warning is still present. While the vision of the company is to provide consumers with a great software system without having to deal with buying an expensive Mac computer, it is a software system that was created by Apple. Apple did not license out the right to use that software with anything other than their own Macs.

Apple brought a copyright infringement suit against Pystar in August. Pystar responded with a countersuit of unfair competition alleging that Apple has a restraint on trade with its End User License Agreements (EULA) and wanted the U.S. District Court of Northern California to find the EULA void. This was a difficult argument to comprehend because a company loading its own hardware with its own software is not typically considered a trade restraint. Most legal experts noted that Pystar would have a hard time trying to argue that Apple has engaged in monopolistic business practices that would warrant an antitrust action.

It looks like those legal experts were right. The judge has rejected Pystar's claims that Apple has violated Sherman's antitrust laws. One of the key issues was the claim put forth by Pystar that the Mac OS is an independent market that was being dominated unfairly by Apple alone. One of Pystar's claims to this separate market were Apple's commercials that use the tagline "Think different". However Judge Alsup noted that: "Those advertising campaigns more plausibly support an inference contrary to that asserted in the counterclaim. Vigorous advertising is a sign of competition, not a lack thereof." (http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212100757)

While Pystar has twenty days to submit a motion to reconsider the dismissal, it is pretty clear that Pystar is up the creek without a paddle. This particular countersuit was being tracked by all of the major PC makers because if Pystar was successful, then it would have been able to pave the way for other PC makers to offer their own hardware that would have the capacity to run with Apple's software. Well looks like Apple lives another day without having to worry about that happening. At least for now.