Unauthorized Mac Clones Hit the Streets

Unauthorized Mac knock-offs have started to appear on the Internet, touted as "PowerPC G6 Macintosh" and "Apple G6 Macintosh-Clone Computer" systems. These so called clones are not licensed, which can only mean that the long arm of Appleis legal division has not been able to reach out to South America and China yet, which, according to The Inquirer, is where they are being built.


Mac clones may be cheap, but they arenit legal.

The machines come with 3.8GHz Pentium 4 processors, and include "Apple MacOS X86," or "Mac OSX-86 Apple MacOS X Tiger 10.4.3," which we assume is an unlicensed copy of Tiger. For the unwitting, the US$499 price tag sounds like a bargain, too. In comparison, you can purchase a new Mac mini with an Intel Core Solo processor for $599, or $799 with a Core Duo processor, legitimate copies of Mac OS X and other Apple applications.

Although Appleis legal department hasnit issued requests or orders to stop selling and manufacturing the clones, that will likely happen soon. The legit Mac maker is notorious for defending its trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual properties.