Apple says Psystar destroyed evidence
The latest chapter in the saga in which Psystar is pitted against Apple in court has started, this time with Apple accusing the Florida Mac clonemaker of destroying evidence needed in court.
Late last week, Apple filed documents with the court accusing Psystar of violating federal rules of evidence, as well as being in violation of a court order, when it destroyed evidence that Apple feels it needs to prove its case. Specifically, the court filing says, “Defendant, Psystar Corporation, has destroyed relevant evidence that was legally required to preserve. Specifically, Psystar has overwritten — i.e. erased — infringing versions of the software code used on computers sold to its customers.”
Apples lawsuit, in essence, accuses Psystar of violating its copyrights to its proprietary operating system, OS X, by modifying it so that it can be run on hardware not manufactured by Apple. If true, this is in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and probably other copyright law, according to an AppleInsider story. As a part of their lawsuit, Apple asked that Psystar provide the court with the software that Psystar uses to create its clones. The recently filed court documents go on to say, “This discovery revealed that Psystar has erased prior versions of its software that Apple’s experts independently found on defendant’s computers.”
At specific issue, apparently, is the bootloader that Psystar uses to bring OS X into memory on their machines. Apple has specifically asked Psystar to produce this code, but Psystar is apparently hinting that it some how lost or erased tit, likening the loss to the accidental erasure or loss of email. This information appears in a footnote which apparently refers to the bootloader code and says, “Psystar’s counsel stated that Psystar’s e-mail and customer support software (SupportSuite) randomly ‘deletes or loses’ e-mails.”
The entire Psystar vs. Apple saga has been full of somewhat bizarre twists and turns. This latest one is no different. Looked at objectively, if Psystar does what the company itself claims to do in its advertising, which is to install OS X on it’s own hardware, it is de facto in violation of the copyright laws. All of the legal shenanigans in the world will not obliterate that one simple fact. One has to wonder how much longer this case will drag on before common sense kicks in, assuming that there is any common sense left in the American judicial system.
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