Officially The End of the Psystar Hackintosh

As we mentioned in a post published last week on the Next Web, the courts are ruling in favour of Apple, agreeing that Psystar was infringing upon Apple’s copyright of the Mac OS X and in violation of the Digital Millennium Act.

Psystar, the popular hackintosh distributors have remained indignant of the charges and have been determined to fight Apple, despite the fact that they’ve filed for bankruptcy. The Florida based company has in turn filed charges against Apple for “anticompetitive” practices.

Yesterday, Psystar reportedly offered Apple 2.675 million to partially settle the suit.
Half the retribution is for infringement of Apple’s copyright, D.M.A violations, breach of contract, and damages to the Apple brand. The other $1,337,500 is for attourney and court fees as well as additional damages, according to Apple insider.

Considering it came out in court filings of Psystar’s bankruptcy that there was only $50,000 in assets left, where will they be coming up with a few mill?

In exchange for the 2.7 million Apple has agreed not to hit them with another truck load of charges
which in short focus’ on trademark infringements and unfair competition.
Apple may have also agreed to hold off on collecting the funds until all the appeals have been concluded.

All pre-installed Mac OS X hardware (Mac-clones) are currently marked ‘Out of Stock’ on Psystar’s site but Rebel EFI however is still being sold and Psystar hopes to keep it that way.

Psystar’s Rebel EFI software assists you in putting Mac OS X on specific Intel powered PCs without
having to hackintosh the PC and is compatible with the newest version of Snow Leopard.

Psystar filed early this week to continue selling Rebel EFI. Psystar noted that the software had not been part of the discovery in this case and is not sold in conjunction with hardware. In other words they’re saying Rebel EFI is a totally different ball of wax from the Mac-clone offenses.
Apple has labeled the unauthorized software as “trafficking in circumvention devices” .

Psystar for now will continue to aid third-party infringer’s in installing Apple’s operating system on generic PCs.

It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes the courts to figure out what to do with Rebel EFI and whether this case will result in heavy regulations for distributing unauthorized software.
We know they’re a thorn in your side Apple but don’t worry, the 1.67 billion in net profit as of last quarter should keep you afloat for a while.

“Serenity now” Mr. Jobs.