Mac clone maker sues Apple, plays antitrust card

The Mac clone maker sued by Apple Inc. last month fired back today with a countersuit charging Apple with restraint of trade, unfair competition and other violations of antitrust law.

Psystar Corp., a Doral, Fla.-based seller of Intel-based computers, said it has filed paperwork with a San Francisco federal court answering Apple's July 3 lawsuit and replying with one of its own.

"We're alleging restraint of trade, among other things," said Colby Springer, one of three lawyers from the firm of Carr & Ferrell LLP representing Psystar, in a press conference held at its Palo Alto, Calif. offices today. "We're going to let the court decide."

Springer said the countersuit accuses Apple of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act, in particularly for tying its Mac OS X operating system to its own hardware in the end-user licensing agreement (EULA). Because the EULA bars users from installing the OS on non-Apple hardware, Springer said, it's unlawful restraint of trade.
"Apple makes a good operating system, we don't deny that," said Springer. "This is about bringing Leopard [Mac OS X 10.5] to the masses."

Rudy Pedraza, the president and co-founder of Psystar, said somewhat the same thing. "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."

Psystar, which has sold Intel-based OpenComputer desktops starting at $555 since April, and OpenServ servers since June, was sued by Apple last month on the basis of the Mac OS X EULA. In the lawsuit, Apple charged Psystar with copyright and trademark infringement, breach of contract and unfair competition because the Florida firm preinstalled its operating system on systems.

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