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Psystar gets Jammie Thomas's attorneys, posts wiki

updated 04:40 pm EDT, Tue July 28, 2009

Psystar gets new lawyers

The Apple vs. Psystar case has taken yet another turn, as the clone maker on Tuesday announced that it has changed lawyers. The company will now be represented by Camara & Sibley LLP of Houston, Texas, the team that is also currently defending Jammie Thomas-Russet against a $2 million RIAA ruling. Psystar also hosts a new "community" page and a wiki that will disclose its methods and tips for running OS X on non-Apple hardware.

"Psystar has always been more a Cowboy than a Hippie. Now we’ve changed lawyers to better reflect who we are," the company said in a statement. "Apple’s copyright on OS X doesn’t give Apple the right to tell people what they can do with it after they buy a copy. Apple can’t tell an applications developer that it can’t make a piece of Mac-compatible software. They can’t forbid Mac users from writing blogs critical of Apple. And they can’t tell us not to write kernel extensions that turn the computers we buy into Mac-compatible hardware."

The brazen statement marks a significant change in the company's strategy outside of the courtroom. Its previous legal team, Carr and Ferrell, LLP, reportedly advised a "reserved stance" toward interactions with the public and media. "We would like to apologize to everyone, as this has never reflected the opinion of Psystar Corporation, nor its founders or employees," the company said in an e-mail.

Although the statement implies Psystar disagreed with its previous counsel, it remains unclear if the decision also involved money issues. The clone maker filed for bankruptcy protection, which involved public disclosure of its debt. In June, documents showed an $88,000 bill due to Carr & Ferrell, along with a $120,000 loan from the company's founder, Rudy Pedraza.

Despite the bankruptcy filing and ongoing legal battle, Psystar has continued to create new computers to compete with Apple's machines. The clones are now being shipped to South America as well, through a new distributor based in Guatemala.

The company has also announced a new ad campaign, "I'm a Psystar," that takes a jab at Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign and Microsoft's "I'm a PC" series. The Psystar community members are invited to create 30-second commercials to submit by September 1st. A panel will pick five entries, while the public will vote on the best one and the winner will receive the company's Nehalem-based Open 7 system. Participants are reminded, however, that they "must not violate any copyright laws."

The community pages also include explanations of several drivers and processes that are used with the Open systems, along with download links. The company claims it will continue to develop a wiki with additional information, while posting all of the open source materials and working to "standardize methods for running OS X on generic Intel hardware."

Apple's legal team threatened a Bluwiki site for publishing pages from authors attempting to find ways to upload music to iPods and iPhones without going through iTunes. The company accused the publisher of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as it has with Psystar in the formal lawsuit, and the pages were removed.

Although the cease and desist order initially was followed, The Electronic Frontier Foundation collaborated with attorneys from Keker & Van Nest and sued Apple. The court was asked to formally reject the threats and allow the restoration of the discussions. Apple last week finally backed down and sent a statement claiming it has no objection to the publication of the pages.

Despite the bankruptcy filing and new attorneys, the Psystar trial is still tentatively scheduled for January 11th. The discovery deadline is set for August 21st, while replies are due shortly thereafter.

 
Previous Comments

Not shocking

07/28, 04:54pm reply

Didn't pay the last lawyers who, no doubt, WANTED to be paid, so now you have a new firm.

Not exactly shocking news.

gudin

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2000

+6

boo hoo

07/28, 04:58pm reply

omg lets cry for the lawyers, they are so defenseless.

Jonathan-Tanya

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2004

-2

Lawyers

07/28, 05:11pm reply

I don't like 'em anymore than others... but they do deserve to be paid for the work they've done. Pedraza has the balls of a brass monkey! When he loses, I wonder where he will hide, make them in South America?

Bobfozz

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2008

+6

shysters

07/28, 05:36pm (1 reply) reply

Community page? The shysters stole other people's work (both apple and open sourced people) and are selling that work under the shyster name. Now they are creating a "community" for their knock off product?

dliup

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2006

+5

Crooks, Inc.

07/28, 07:29pm reply

These guys are crooks and need to be shut down.

Mr. Strat

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2002

+4

actually

07/28, 07:35pm reply

Apple (and every other software maker) DOES have the right to tell people what they can do after they buy a copy. Just read the EULA.

The ignorance of these people is amazing.

robttwo

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2005

+5

More charges to add

07/28, 08:50pm reply

Apple can add more charges with there postings on a community page. Pystar is just hanging themselves with every move.

b9robot

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2009

0

numb nuts

07/29, 04:44am reply

Jeez the money it takes these guys to do what they're doing could have been spent developing there own OS.

Where would Apple be if Steve just kept trying to sue IBM et al for whatever they were hocking rather than just do his own thing.

manleycreative

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Joined: Sep 2005

0

burning flames

07/29, 12:11pm reply

well, if you have to go down - might as well be in a blaze of glory!

byRyan

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2007

+2

Reflect who they are?

07/29, 12:31pm reply

They need to hire the lawfirm "Cheatembetter and How".

B_Devlin

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2009

0

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