I normally take the side of the underdog. A psychology major might say this is because of an inferiority complex that is temporarily buried each time a small guy wins against the big guy.

The truth is, I'm a bit of an anarchist, I always have been. I visit Piratebay on a regular basis, and I don't pay a monthly Usenet fee for the news articles. However, when it comes to the case of Psystar vs Apple, I'm all about the big guy: Apple.

For those of you who have been living on a deserted island for the past couple of years; Psystar is a so-called 'Mac-Clone' retailer. They sell computers that run the latest Macintosh software.

It all started back in 2005 when Apple decided to start using Intel brand processors. Before this, they had pretty much locked their OS to their hardware and it was next to impossible to get it running on any other machine.

After the Intel switch, downloads for the Mac OS from Apple's own download page pretty much went hysterical for a while. With a little tweaking, anyone could have a Mac on the cheap.

At average prices somewhere between 2 to 3 times higher than PCs, Macs have always been one of the most expensive personal and business computing solutions available. After the switch, Apple was able to offer cheaper hardware, but the catch was that their proprietary system was now open for pirating.

Then came Psystar, they started selling Mac clones straight from their website, believing that they had found a flaw in Apple's Terms of Use for the operating system.

It turns out, they really just thought that Apple's terms were unenforceable. Their whole legal position was based on the fact that they never thought a judge would side with Apple, based soley on the grammar they used when writing their TOU.

Now, we hear that Psystar settled with Apple for the princely sum of $2.7 million (US). If, as they reported, they have to date sold 768 clones, this means that Psystar has promised to pay a little over $3,000 (US) for each unit sold.

Okay, so maybe I don't understand the math that Psystar is using to justify themselves to their stockholders, but it looks to me as if they are in serious trouble, financially.

Legally, the settlement came with a clause that says Psystar won't be paying anything until all appeals are finished. Which could take several years. In this way, they were able to stop Apple's Cease-And-Desist request to the judge and continue to sell their products.

Psystar is now claiming to be selling Mac-Ready PCs, without the OS. Purchasers will be able to download their own copies of the Operating System and install it manually. This of course could never catch on, but then only selling 768 units to begin with is not exactly stellar either.

The good news is that Apple finally seems to be making progress with protecting their property. Technically a hardware company since its inception, Apple has constantly worked to produce an operating system that will take full advantage of the latest hardware available.

To take their work, which is basically offered for free to Macintosh owners, and try to make a profit from it is just this side of sleazy. Psystar can tell their shareholders whatever they want, but as of now, they don't have a chance in hell of pulling a profit.