In a war with a known end we are here to let you know that the obvious has happened once again: Apple has won the suit against Psystar, the Mac clone maker. This suit concerns Leopard, it was filed in California, and the judge ruled in favor of Apple as due to several reasons like copyright infringement, creation of derivative works, copyright misuse, DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) violations, and OS X EULA violations.

According to the California court, Apple was right to say that Psystar has been illegally copying, modifying as well as distributing Mac OS X Leopard. Even if Psystar owned copies of Mac OS X, it didn’t have the right to distribute the software without Apple’s authorization. Psystar was creating Mac OS X copies from a Mac Mini imaging station, not from physical DVDs.

The creation of derivative works represents the fact that Psystar replaced the Mac OS X boot-loader with its own by disabling and removing the original kernels. Still, Psystar was selling Apple’s code, and it didn’t have the permission to do that, meaning that nobody is allowed to hack Mac OS X software and sell it on another hardware that doesn’t come from Apple (and even if the hardware did come from Apple, Psystar wouldn’t be allowed to sell it).

Although Psystar invoked antitrust and monopoly arguments by saying that Apple is limiting Mac OS X to Apple hardware, the California court said that the Cupertino-based company is not preventing Windows PC owners to buy Mac OS X software, meaning Apple can sell Mac OS X in any way possible as long as the company doesn’t prevent consumers from buying Windows and non-Apple hardware.

As for the DMCA violations, Psystar said that the Mac OS X kernel encryption codes can be found all over the internet, however, “when the decryption key was not employed, the encryption effectively worked to prevent access to Mac OS X.”

At the moment the California court didn’t announce how much Psystar will have to pay Apple, but we assume that it’s going to get worse for the former company in favor of the latter because next month there is another Apple vs Psystar suit over the Mac OS X Snow Leopard in Florida. The trial in Florida is focused on breach of contract, Mac OS X EULA, trademark claims, and unfair competition. It’s all going to be decided next month, but we think that you already know what’s going to happen.

Apple Wins Case Against Psytar in California

via Engadget