Judge Dismisses Computer Maker's Claims Apple Is A Monopoly

[LinuxMint-4]

Judge Dismisses Computer Maker's Claims Apple Is A Monopoly
Dow Jones
November 18, 2008: 08:18 PM EST

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art ... RTUNE5.htm


SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed charges from a small computer maker that Apple Inc. (AAPL) is a monopolist because it tightly controls which computer makers build machines using its Macintosh operating system software.

With his ruling, U.S. District Judge William Alsup has handed Apple its latest victory against cloners that create and sell machines based on Apple's software.

Psystar Ltd., based in Doral, Fla., was challenging Apple's requirement that only Apple-branded devices use its software, which Psystar contends illegally ties the sale of one product to another. That's not the case with operating system software from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) or the open source Linux, which can be installed on devices from any number of manufacturers, Psystar said.

In his 16-page decision Tuesday, Alsup ruled Apple's products don't constitute a market to dominate. As a consequence, Apple then can't be considered a monopolist, Alsup wrote.

An Apple spokesman had no comment. A representative for Psystar couldn't be reached for comment.

Apple sued Psystar in July after the company began selling Apple clones, and the suit seeks to effectively shut the company down for allegedly violating the terms of use of its software. That suit remains intact. Alsup's decision gives Apple the upper hand in that litigation.

[Claudio]

And the rest of the world lets out a resounding "DuH!"

That's like claiming that IBM and SGI are monopolistic because they run their own respective OSes (AIX/IRIX) on their own hardware. I don't have a problem if a company develops their own OS for their own purposes (whether open or closed), but to claim that they're being monopolistic is ridiculous IMO. MS was stifling competition on generic PC hardware. Apple isn't doing anything of the sort. Sure, they're locking people into their hardware, but one would have to choose to go with Apple's solution. No one had a choice during the 90s when MS was ubiquitous on the PC. Even when companies tried to use BeOS as an alternative, MS prevented them from preinstalling it or else. Gateway was the only one who included BeOS, but only as an uninstalled boxed solution that no average Joe was going to install. And how is Apple being monopolistic when you can install GNU/Linux and Free/Net/OpenBSD on both their PowerPC and Intel Macs?

Psystar was just trying to have its 15 seconds of fame, just like most everyone here in Miami....they think they're smarter than those who have already established their intelligence long ago and just end up looking like a bunch of morons. Par for the course.

[eddie]

Years ago there was a company that legally licensed apple hardware and software, Their name escapes me at the moment. When they began to dominate the market and overtake Apple sales, the license contract was terminated. Apple is such a jealous suitor.

[Claudio]

Years ago there was a company that legally licensed apple hardware and software, Their name escapes me at the moment. When they began to dominate the market and overtake Apple sales, the license contract was terminated. Apple is such a jealous suitor.

In that respect, yes I do think it was messed up, but Apple was in such a dire position that it didn't need the clone makers cannibalizing its business into oblivion. I loved the Mac OS clone market and they had some great products, but the intent of the licensing to the clone makers was for penetration into markets where Windows was dominant, not so much to take over Apple's sales completely. So in that respect I do understand why Apple (or rather Steve Jobs) did what it did.

I used to have a Motorola StarMax 4000 Mac clone and I loved it, though many hardcore Mac fanbois will shun it because it was very "PC-like". Stupid of them if you ask me since it was more function over form, but that's not necessarily the Apple Way.

Now as far as what they're doing with the Apps Store and developers on the iPhone, that's just screwy. But of course, Apple has done stuff like that before (Konfabulator, to name but one).