The Apple Channel

August 27, 2008

Apple clone-maker Psystar has escalated the dispute between the two companies by filing a counter-suit alleging that Apple's licensing violates U.S. anti-trust legislation.

Miami-based system builder Psystar is claiming that Apple is violating two federal anti-trust laws designed to prevent monopolistic business practices, the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act. Psystar's attorney, Colby Springer told CNET that Apple's "tying of the Mac OS to Apple-labled hardware is 'an anticompetitive restrain of trade'."

Psystar's owner Rudy Pedraza said in a press conference that he wants to make Apple's OS more accessible by providing it on less-expensive hardware than that sold by Apple, according to CNET.

Apple filed a suit against Psystar in July for copyright infringement among other violations, but the system builder says its OpenComputer Mac-clone does not violate Apple's copyright but uses open source code to allow its PC to run Mac OS X Leopard.

"What we want to do is to provide an alternative, an option...It's not that people don't want to use Mac OS, many people are open to the idea, but they're not used to spending an exorbitant amount of money on something that is essentially generic hardware," Pedrazza said.

Psystar began selling its Mac clone PCs and servers earlier this year.