Apple accusing Psystar of withholding information
updated 04:25 pm EDT, Fri May 1, 2009
Psystar holding back?
Psystar is failing to follow proper legal procedure, Apple has claimed in a petition to a federal court judge. The Mac cloner is specifically accused of interfering with the discovery phase of a current lawsuit, by refusing to produce balance sheets, monthly statements and other financial documents, although it has provided some cost and revenue receipts. "Moreover," states Apple attorney James Gilliland, "at the deposition regarding Psystar’s revenues, profits, assets and liabilities...Psystar’s CEO and founder Rudy Pedraza, the person designated by Psystar to testify on this topic, would not answer basic questions about Psystar’s financials."
The two companies are engaged in a legal war over Psystar's Open Computers, which come preloaded with Mac OS X Leopard. Apple's end-user licensing agreement expressly forbids installing the software on third-party hardware, but Psystar has launched a counterattack to Apple's suit, charging the company with unfairly extending copyright and blocking competition.
During the March 20th deposition, Pedraza is said to have been unable to answer questions some 90 times, regardless of whether they were about sales, costs, profits or prices. Gilliland further accuses Psystar of failing to hand over any customer purchase or order documents, despite having sold Open systems as far back as April 2008. Some vendor invoices have been shared, though only ranging from December 2008 through to March 2009.
Gilliland is therefore asking the court to order Psystar to turn over financial documents, and also provide a second expert capable of testifying on the company's state. Discovery ends June 26th, and the case should go to trial on November 9th, should no settlements be reached.
Moderator
Joined: Aug 2001
Psystar ...
... will not be around much longer. Clever lawyers can extend a fraud for quite a while (witness SCO) but in the end it all comes crashing down.
I pity the fools who actually bought one of those things.