Once bankrupt Psystar forces Phil Schiller, others in deposition as clone case continues

Hopefully none too frazzled following his recent spate of letter-writing, Apple’s marketing chief, Phil Schiller, will be required to offer his deposition in the ongoing Apple versus upstart unlicensed clone maker, Psystar, case.

Schiller is just one of several high level Apple employees who Psystar’s “people” will be taking depositions from as they attempt to defend themself against an Apple legal action. Apple has accused Psystar of violating the Mac OS X licensing agreement and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by installing the operating system on PCs.

“We are pleased to announce that an agreement with Apple’s counsel was reached earlier this month and we now have the final list of their deponents for our proposed topics with respect to this litigation. For the past week and for the following ten days we will be doing depositions of some of Apple’s highest level people," Psystar explained.

"After numerous depositions of Psystar employees and associates the shoe is finally on the other foot, oh the joy! We’re taking the top ten most highly moderated questions for each person to be asked at their depositions."

The deposition list reportedly also includes the following individuals: John Wright, OS X Senior Software Manager, Kevin Van Vechten, OS X, Software Engineering Manager, Mike Culbert, Mac Hardware, Senior Director, Simon Patience, OS X, Head of Core OS, Mark Donnelly, Apple VP Finance and Worldwide Business management and others.

Despite the requirement to attend a deposition, Apple legal continues to fight, most recently accusing Psystar of destroying evidence. Groklaw reports Apple’s filing states: “Defendant, Psystar Corporation, has destroyed relevant evidence that it was legally required to preserve. Specifically, Psystar has overwritten — i.e., erased — infringing versions of the software code used on computers sold to its customers.”

“Apple goes on to state that it "contends and can prove" that Psystar violated the DMCA and infringed copyrights "by modifying Apple’s Mac OS X software" and then installing it on non-Apple computers. When Apple deposed the Psystar CEO, Rodolfo Pedraza, it says, it did so to find out what method the company used to circumvent Apple’s "technological protection measures", and that’s how it found out about the erasures of prior versions of Psystar’s software. This happened just before Psystar filed for bankruptcy,” writes Groklaw.

One thing’s for sure, whatever the outcome of the Psystar trials, the clone maker has successfully managed to consume a chunk of high level Apple executive time.