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Several Apple execs to be deposed in Psystar battle

updated 09:55 am EDT, Fri August 14, 2009

Psystar grills Apple execs

A group of Apple executives has begun to answer deposition in the company's ongoing legal dispute with Psystar, the latter party has revealed. People who have already addressed questions relating to Psystar's defense include John Wright, a senior software manager for Mac OS X, and Kevin van Vechten, a software engineering manager. Thursday saw questions directed towards Phil Schiller, Apple's senior VP for worldwide product marketing, and one of the company's most prominent public faces.

Individuals yet to face scrutiny from Psystar lawyers include -- among others -- Mike Culbert, the senior director for Mac hardware; Simon Patience, the head of the core OS division; and Mark Donnelly, the VP of finance and worldwide business management. In an unusual step Psystar is taking public submissions for questions, though only 10 selected ones will be asked during each interview. People are also prompted to keep questions strictly relevant to litigation.

Apple has accused Psystar of violating the end-user license agreement (EULA) for Mac OS X Leopard, which prohibits installing the OS on computers without official branding. Conversely, Apple has been charged with abusing copyright, and thereby preventing fair competition similar to that in the PC world. Psystar has found itself in an increasingly precarious situation however, having had to abandon bankruptcy protection in order to continue its defense.

 
Previous Comments

why?

08/14, 10:11am reply

why on Earth would Psystar pursue this expensive and doomed litigation?

climacs

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2001

+1

lol deposed

08/14, 10:30am reply

Title: "Several Apple execs to be deposed in Psystar battle".

Definition for Deposed: to remove from a throne or other high position.

Way different than to answer deposition. Thanks for the entertainment Macnn. =p

dliup

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2006

-7

Re: lol

08/14, 10:46am reply

Definition number 2:

to testify or affirm under oath, esp. in a written statement: to depose that it was true.

testudo

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

+8

Re: why

08/14, 10:47am reply

Why are they pursuing it? Because they started it, and they've got no other options but to see it through. It is the only option they have available that would possibly let them stay in business.

testudo

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

+5

ask them this...

08/14, 10:53am (5 replies) reply

Do newer versions of the OS deliberately run slower based on the gestalt ID of the machine it's running on?

Feathers

Forum Regular

Joined: Oct 1999

-1

Stalking Horse

08/14, 05:00pm reply

Apple has contended that Pystar is acting as a "stalking horse" for a larger PC manufacturer like Dell and as such, is receiving money to fund this lawsuit. I don't know if Apple has gotten to see Pystar's financials but the bankruptcy filing would have made all of their financial info available for discovery.

cebritt

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2000

0

Re: Stalking horse

08/15, 03:17pm (1 reply) reply

Yeah, right. The ol' "Dell is behind it!" ploy. Wasn't it "MS is behind it" last month? Maybe its the Cubans? Yeah, the Cubans and the mafia teaming up to squash Apple.

Then again, Apple is all but out of the computer business anyway, so its nary a concern for them...

LouZer

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2000

-1

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