Reports of Psystar's Demise Appear Premature

[cmaier]

Well, that case didn't work out well for Camara's client... Swapping a $220,000 judgement for a $1.92 million judgement...

I guess Kiwi Camara would have wanted the Apple case first, because where Jammie Thomas was ordered to pay $80,000 for each of 24 songs that were found in your sharing folder (each worth less than $1, with no evidence and not even much likelihood that many copies were made), Apple asked for $30,000 each for copying Leopard and Snow Leopard, which are each worth not $1 but probably somewhere around $200 to $400 (because the low price Apple charges is exclusively for people who gave Apple lots of money for a computer with an earlier version of MacOS X installed), and there was evidence of around 800 copies made and distributed for commercial reasons. (The real charge was Apple asking for $2500 per DMCA violation, and each copy installed was a violation, something that Jammie Thomas never did).

So in the Apple case, the total value of the products copied was probably 40 times higher, the number of copies made probably 100 times higher, so keeping these numbers in mind, Jammie Thomas should have paid $60000, divided by 40, divided by 100, which makes it $15. Instead she was ordered to pay $1.92 million.

I think if Camara could have shown the jury in the Jammie Thomas case that Apple asked for $30,000 for making 800 copies of their operating system, he should have managed to convince them that just putting a $1 song into a shared folder should not be worth $80,000.

I understand your point, but, of course, the value of the property isn't relevant to statutory damages.

 

[nicbrown]

Could you please share any market research that you have come across on how this product would affect sales of iMacs and Mac Pros? In addition, an analysis of how further dividing Apple's engineering resources would affect product quality and support would also be important.

I never said it would have any effect on the sales of Mac Pros or iMacs. People are building Hackintoshes to provide themselves with the Mac that Apple won't sell.

Hackintosh builders are already NOT buying iMacs or Mac Pros, nor the Mini. And if Apple is worried about hurting Mac Pro sales, then it should drop the i7 iMac option immediately

All the profit from these machines has gone to PC part manufacturers. Mainly Gigabyte, ASUS and Intel.

What percentage of Hackintosh builders do you think run Geekbench? There are currently 12000 benchmarks. Lets round that down to 10000 to account for overclocking related dupes. 1/4? - 40,000 hackintoshes. 1/10? - 100000 machines. Guesstimates, but not unreasonable, given the evidence.

All built with no keynote hype, no marketing, and in spite of the warnings of doomer Apple fans.

If you put aside your blind faith in Apple for a bit and look at the phenomenon, it IS interesting, to say the least.

EFI bootloaders are out of the bag. Apple can't lock out hackintoshes built on Intel chipsets without locking out all current Mac hardware. Will it embrace emerging hackintosh 'products'? - I think that it will ignore them for at least another year. The phenomenon is 'growing the ecosystem' and maybe making converts. And ultimately, Apple as a company has fallen hard for the handheld...

 

[BaldiMac]

I never said it would have any effect on the sales of Mac Pros or iMacs. People are building Hackintoshes to provide themselves with the Mac that Apple won't sell.

No, you said that they could take a cut of the profit or let others take it. Those are not the only two options. I was just pointing out that that there is no guarantee that selling an upgradeable, mid-range tower would increase Apple's profits.

Hackintosh builders are already NOT buying iMacs or Mac Pros, nor the Mini. And if Apple is worried about hurting Mac Pro sales, then it should drop the i7 iMac option immediately

I think that is the whole point. If upgradeable, mid-range towers were not an option (via hackintosh) would some of them buy iMacs or Mac Pros?

All the profit from these machines has gone to PC part manufacturers. Mainly Gigabyte, ASUS and Intel.

So?

What percentage of Hackintosh builders do you think run Geekbench? There are currently 12000 benchmarks. Lets round that down to 10000 to account for overclocking related dupes. 1/4? - 40,000 hackintoshes. 1/10? - 100000 machines. Guesstimates, but not unreasonable, given the evidence.

All built with no keynote hype, no marketing, and in spite of the warnings of doomer Apple fans.

I've never made any claims as to the number of hackintoshes. But what do those numbers show even if they are reasonable? 100,000 machines over the last 2 or 3 years. Compared to 10,000,000 Macs sold a year.

If you put aside your blind faith in Apple for a bit and look at the phenomenon, it IS interesting, to say the least.

I have no blind faith in Apple. But I have more faith in the Apple executive team's ability to run their business than I do most forum posters.

EFI bootloaders are out of the bag. Apple can't lock out hackintoshes built on Intel chipsets without locking out all current Mac hardware. Will it embrace emerging hackintosh 'products'? - I think that it will ignore them for at least another year. The phenomenon is 'growing the ecosystem' and maybe making converts. And ultimately, Apple as a company has fallen hard for the handheld...

Why would it "embrace emerging hackintosh 'products'"?

 

[*LTD*]

http://www.psystar.com/

Psystar Temporarily Halts Sale of Rebel EFI
December 22, 2009

Psystar has voluntarily suspended the sale of our Rebel EFI software product. Psystar feels it would be prudent to halt the sale of Rebel EFI while we explicitly ask the court for clarification on the legality of Rebel EFI. Our patience has been tested but our resolve is unwavering. Psystar's vision of bringing the Mac OS to generic PC hardware is and always will be unyielding. Although Rebel EFI may be temporarily unavailable for purchase on the Psystar online store, those who purchase a t-shirt or donate over twenty dollars will receive one free copy of Rebel EFI once the court has ruled in our favor on this issue.

We respectfully disagree with courts notion that we are "hardcore copyright infringers". Psystar has never, and will never, condone software piracy. It's your software, you should be able to use it where you want to. If you purchase an off-the-shelf copy of OS X Snow Leopard, its your right to use that software. A publisher cannot forbid you from reading a book in the bathroom or listening to a music disc while riding your bicycle. There should be no difference in the software realm, no matter how much money Apple or anyone else throws at it. That is the real issue here and what we have always been fighting for.

Psystar will continue to support all of its existing customers of hardware and software through this transitional period. Warranties on hardware will continue to be honored as long the customer has a valid warranty. Rebel EFI support for existing customers, as always, will remain exclusively available through email and the built-in ticket interface.

Earlier this month, Psystar discontinued the sale of all its computer systems. In the coming days, we will again be offering complete systems but at discounted prices as they will be bundled with your choice of Linux operating system. In addition to using only first quality components, our hardware specifically chosen such that it is known to be compatible with OS X (via Apples own drivers or open source offerings online). This makes it easier to get up and running with your favorite XNU based operating system, including Pure Darwin.

Also worth mentioning are new flavors of our wildly popular Rebel EFI software product (pending court for release). These include editions tailored to specific off the shelf hardware including the Dell 9 Mini and HP Mini netbooks. In the interim, please keep up to date with Psystar's open source offerings @ https://foundry.psystar.com . Note, those who qualify for a free copy of Rebel EFI will be able to choose one of these new offerings.

Any and all information regarding Rebel EFI, future software products and all other things Psystar should be directed to press@psystar.com or legal@psystar.com.

 

[cmaier]

Yeah, there's something wrong with these guys.

 

[pdjudd]

A publisher cannot forbid you from reading a book in the bathroom or listening to a music disc while riding your bicycle. There should be no difference in the software realm, no matter how much money Apple or anyone else throws at it. That is the real issue here and what we have always been fighting for.

No, but nobody seriously makes those terms with physical items like books or Audio CD’s - but neither of these items are the same as software which can only be used after copying content from one medium to another - Listening to a CD or reading a book is static - you do not copy the material - You are copying and making a derivative - the courts declared that. You may think that you are not pirates, but you have infringed on copyrights by - COPYING! Something that publishers and musicians don’t want you doing either!

Yeah, there's something wrong with these guys.

Yea, they are truing to dance around an injunction that was deliberately stated to be sold at peril.... THe judges are going to be real pleased with that...

 

[DMann]

http://www.psystar.com/

Psystar Temporarily Halts Sale of Rebel EFI
December 22, 2009

Psystar has voluntarily suspended the sale of our Rebel EFI software product. Psystar feels it would be prudent to halt the sale of Rebel EFI while we explicitly ask the court for clarification on the legality of Rebel EFI. Our patience has been tested but our resolve is unwavering. Psystar's vision of bringing the Mac OS to generic PC hardware is and always will be unyielding. Although Rebel EFI may be temporarily unavailable for purchase on the Psystar online store, those who purchase a t-shirt or donate over twenty dollars will receive one free copy of Rebel EFI once the court has ruled in our favor on this issue.

We respectfully disagree with courts notion that we are "hardcore copyright infringers". Psystar has never, and will never, condone software piracy. It's your software, you should be able to use it where you want to. If you purchase an off-the-shelf copy of OS X Snow Leopard, its your right to use that software. A publisher cannot forbid you from reading a book in the bathroom or listening to a music disc while riding your bicycle. There should be no difference in the software realm, no matter how much money Apple or anyone else throws at it. That is the real issue here and what we have always been fighting for.

Psystar will continue to support all of its existing customers of hardware and software through this transitional period. Warranties on hardware will continue to be honored as long the customer has a valid warranty. Rebel EFI support for existing customers, as always, will remain exclusively available through email and the built-in ticket interface.

Earlier this month, Psystar discontinued the sale of all its computer systems. In the coming days, we will again be offering complete systems but at discounted prices as they will be bundled with your choice of Linux operating system. In addition to using only first quality components, our hardware specifically chosen such that it is known to be compatible with OS X (via Apples own drivers or open source offerings online). This makes it easier to get up and running with your favorite XNU based operating system, including Pure Darwin.

Also worth mentioning are new flavors of our wildly popular Rebel EFI software product (pending court for release). These include editions tailored to specific off the shelf hardware including the Dell 9 Mini and HP Mini netbooks. In the interim, please keep up to date with Psystar's open source offerings @ https://foundry.psystar.com . Note, those who qualify for a free copy of Rebel EFI will be able to choose one of these new offerings.

Any and all information regarding Rebel EFI, future software products and all other things Psystar should be directed to press@psystar.com or legal@psystar.com.

Their resolve is unwavering, that much is for sure.