PsyStar copyright judge pencils in January 2010 trial date
Whether the Mac clone maker’s recent bankruptcy was a necessity or just the mother-of-all delaying tactics, we’ll probably never know. Whatever the case, the copyright infringement case against Miami, Florida-based company won’t proceed to trial until at least the beginning next year.
MacObserver reports that Judge Alsup, the jurist hearing Apple’s copyright infringement case against PsyStar, has set a timetable for proceedings in the case, including a preliminary start date for the trial: Aug. 21 for discovery, Sept. 4 for discovery related replies, Oct. 8 for all motions, pretrial conference on Dec. 14 and, finally, trial on Monday, Jan. 11, 2010.
Thereupon, the question of who’s paying PsyStar’s lawyers, Carr & Ferrell, looms large as any payment made to them will be a matter of public record and will continue to be for some time because of the bankruptcy and attendant court supervision.
“It has been my experience that lawyers don’t work for free, except on pro bono cases, and this is not for Carr & Ferrell a pro bono case,” says an attorney familiar with this type of case. “Yet, while in bankruptcy, Psystar must report any payment to Carr of Carr’s pre-petition debt to the bankruptcy court through the U.S. Trustee and cannot make any payment of Carr’s debt that would either prejudice other creditors or pay Carr’s debt ahead of other creditors, at least not without the bankruptcy court’s permission.”
The black hand of…
Further, if PsyStar doesn’t report payments to Carr for representation, that would mean someone else is picking up the tab, which of course is perhaps the only interesting unknown in this case (i.e. PsyStar’s guilt vis-a-vis copyright infringement is hardly in doubt).
So, if Psystar’s bankruptcy reports show that third-parties are funding the cloner’s legal battle, then Apple would likely try to include them in its case against the Florida company.
So, who if anyone do you think is behind the curtain funding PsyStar? Wouldn’t it be hilarious if it were SCO or Dell…
What’s your take?
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