Apple facing fruity legalities as PearC sells installed Mac OS X
by Stevie Smith - Feb 10 2009, 13:00
Yet another computer manufacturer starts selling systems with Mac OS X preinstalled. Apple gonna be mad. Image: Apple.
With Apple Inc. still tangled deep within a web of bitter legal posturing with Florida-based Mac clone manufacturer Psystar, it’s unlikely to be thrilled about the appearance of PearC, which is offering German consumers the opportunity to snap up hardware with Mac OS X as a preinstalled option.
Sporting a similarly fruity company name that’s apparently nothing more than a corporate coincidence, PearC’s justification for flogging computers with Mac OS X revolves around a German law that renders the software’s restrictive end user licensing agreement (EULA) void because the document is within the box and cannot be viewed until the box is opened.
According to Dirk Blößl, a spokesman for PearC parent company HyperMegaNet, it is perfectly legal in Germany for PearC to sell a line of computers with the Mac OS X operating system preinstalled.
While Apple’s seemingly besieged legal team is likely pouring over this latest convenient workaround of a contentious EULA that ties Mac OS X to Apple-branded hardware, those European technology consumers looking to secure the much-lauded operating system without meeting Apple’s lofty system prices can do so across a variety of configurable and pennywise PearC desktop computers.
These range from the modestly priced “Starter” system, which opens at a basic 499 Euros and is available running on a selection of Intel dual-core processors, up to 750GBs of hard disk drive space, and a choice between the GeForce 7200GS or GeForce 8400GS.
Then there’s the slightly more muscular “Advanced” model, which opens at 799 Euros and includes a Core 2 Quad processor, up to 750GBs of data storage, an onboard Blu-ray burner, and a choice between the GeForce 8200GS, GeForce 9800GT or the GeForce 9800GTX.
Finally, PearC is offering the distinctly oomph-worthy “Professional” package, which carries a much more ‘Applecentric’ price of 1,400 Euros but also includes Intel’s new 2.67GHz Core i7 920 chip, up to 12GBs of DDR3 memory, and a whopping 1TB of hard drive storage.
Cupertino-based Apple has yet to issue comment on PearC’s business or the legal loophole it appears to be trading through. Expect an official complaint to be filed in the near future.
The Tech Herald: Apple and Psystar do battle over Mac OS X preinstallations
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