Psystar, the infamous Mac cloner under siege from not one, but two lawsuits from Apple, has today announced an OEM program to certify other Hackintoshes.

Psystar’s vision of open computing is to provide users with the freedom to choose which OS’s they install on their hardware. The Licensing Program will allow computer manufacturers the opportunity to ship the certified systems pre-configured with DUBL and OS of choice including Windows 7, Windows Vista and several flavors of Linux. These systems would also be compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and receive normal software updates through the use of “Safe Update” technology. The customer can install the Mac OS themselves simply by inserting the retail DVD or choose to install several other OS’s with no manual boot configuration. DUBL supports up to six different operating systems on a single machine and configures itself *automagicly*.

Under the program, the Florida-based firm will license its “virtualization technology” (an EFI implementation and a bootloader) to other builders. The license also provides a “Psystar Certified” seal of approval which allows those builders to use Psystar’s tech to preload Mac OS X. The company also promises that the machines will receive updates through a “Safe Update” process which installs patches without completely bitching up the OS X install.

While Psystar’s PR has dropped herculean cajones squarely on Apple’s doorstep, there is at least one pulled punch: The release explicitly states that consumers can purchase and install OS X themselves. This is a sharp departure from Psystar’s current model which ships Hackintoshes preloaded with OS X–a tactic that is the subject of Apple’s twin lawsuits. In a subtle way, it’s a sign of things to come should Psystar come to lose in court. By shipping a copy of OS X with a machine for customers to install, Psystar could cooperate with the letter of the law while running willy nilly all over the spirit.

The outstanding lawsuits against Psystar allege willful copyright infringement for selling OS X-powered PCs, and a DMCA violation attributed to the “encryption” “cracking” needed to take OS X out of its Apple-provided hardware platform.

Psystar, the gutsy Mac Clone maker out of Miami, has recently exited chapter 11 after Apple successfully lifted the stay in proceedings that occurred as a result of Psystar’s bankruptcy.

Apple blog AppleInsider offered details on the stay:

Psystar’s request for bankruptcy threatened to delay its case against the official Mac maker because the proceedings in that case were put on hold while the bankruptcy court began hearing the clone maker’s case for Chapter 11 protection. However, Apple a little over one week ago successfully won its motion to have the temporary stay in the case lifted. That ruling overturned the automatic freeze on any court proceedings that followed when Psystar filed for Chapter 11 in May.

Now that Psystar cannot avoid further proceedings by staying in bankruptcy, the firm is out from chapter 11 and has even released a new clone. Balls of steel, friends.

Psystar must know something we don’t. The company hellbent on selling Mac clones filed papers (.pdf) with the courts claiming Apple doesn’t have a right to bring suit against them alleging copyright infringement because of Apple’s “failure to register said copyrights with the copyright office as required.”

I don’t know where their lawyers are from, but a quick search of the Copyright Office’s database brings this up. And of course there’s that little bit of protection granted to the software’s author just for authoring it – no filing needed. Is Psystar crazy, brazen, or just grasping at straws?

As we draw into the blustery month of December, we enter a period of reflection before we move to embrace the coming year. While the new year will be all about righting wrongs and changing our habits, we’ll take this time of giving and considering to look back and snicker at all the firms who booked passage on the failboat in 2008.

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