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Hackintosher Psystar to pay Apple $2.7m in settlement

But it ain't over til it's over

Apple and Psystar have settled a large chunk of their legal wrangling, with the Hackintosher agreeing to pay Apple $2.7m rather than continue to trial in federal court in Northern California.

The legal wrangling on Psystar's home turf in Florida, however, will continue.

In a filing by Apple's legal team Tuesday morning, the two companies agreed that Apple's charges of copyright infringement, Digital Millenium Copyright Act violation, and breach of contract should go Cupertino's way, along with Psystar's counterclaims of copyright misuse and unenforceability.

In addition, damages will be paid by Psystar in the amount of $1.34m, with an additional $1.34m covering attorney's fees and costs, both not to be paid "until any and all appeals in this matter are concluded or the time for filing any such appeal has lapsed."

Or paid ever, seeing as how Psystar, which only recently emerged from bankruptcy, is not exactly what you might call flush with cash.

This filing comes one day after Psystar filed its own notification of a partial settlement with the same court. That filling was far less clear-cut than Tuesday's agreement.

In Psystar's filing, the company claimed that its Rebel EFI software, which enables the installation of Mac OS X on non-Apple machines, should not be part of any settlement.

"[The Northern California District Court] should not give Apple an injunction covering a software product the legality of which Apple has yet to litigate anywhere," Psystar's filing reads, adding that doing so "would invade the jurisdiction of Judge Hoeveler of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida."

The Apple-Psystar imbroglio has been a long and convoluted series of claims, counterclaims, legal feints, and bankruptcy maneuvers. Although Tuesday's settlement wipes both Apple and Psystar's complaints off the docket in Northern California, it doesn't touch the issues still in front of Judge Hoeveler in Florida.

Psystar's focus on Rebel EFI in its Monday filing would seem to indicate that the company's days as a maker of Hackintoshes that come preinstalled with Mac OS X have come to an end. However, Psystar may have perhaps been unintentionally prophetic when it mentioned that "Apple has yet to litigate" against the Rebel EFI utility. ®

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