Psystar

When is a Windows PC not a Windows PC? When you toss out the Windows and replace it with Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard or any other major operating system.

A federal judge castigated Apple yesterday in an order that dismissed a motion the company had made in its ongoing legal battle with Mac clone maker Psystar, according to court documents.

Mac clone maker begs out of Chapter 11 after payment plan with its legal team falls through.

Psystar, the Mac clone maker battling with Apple that filed for bankruptcy last week, owes the bulk of its outstanding debt to the California law firm that's represented it for almost a year, court documents show.

A federal judge last week ruled that Psystar Corp. can continue its countersuit against Apple Inc., giving the Mac clone maker a rare win in its seven-month-old battle with Apple.

Shrugging off its ongoing legal dispute with Apple, unauthorized Mac clone maker Psystar this week trounced Apple, introducing OS X-compatible PCs with Blu-ray drives and the Nvidia 9800GT graphics card. Apple offers neither peripheral on a Mac.

The battle between Apple and Psystar will have an easily predictable outcome. Apple will triumph of course, not because they are right, and not because they have superior technology, but because they have money and enough lawyers to bury the small Psystar and anybody else who threatens their business.

Apple says Psystar knowingly violated its copyrights and license agreements and induced customers who bought the OS X-running Open Computer to do the same. Because of that and the resulting damage that Apple alleges is being done to its brand, it's asking the U.S. District Court for a permanent injunction that would bar Psystar from selling any more hardware with Apple software. And it wants Psystar to recall every Mac clone sold.