"

Psystar began selling a Mac clone last spring, despite the fact that the Mac OS X licensing agreement forbids people from installing the operating system on anything other than an Apple-branded machine. That prompted a , which not only wants Psystar to stop selling its Open Computer but to . Psystar countered with a suit of its own, . While U.S. District Judge William Alsup in November, the clone maker has since . In the new filing, Psystar contends that Apple is misusing copyright by tying OS X to Mac computers.

Psystar's latest filing sets the stage for what figures to be a protracted legal battle. And while it's easy to grasp what's at stake for Psystar--an Apple victory would mean the end of Psystar's Mac cloning efforts and quite possibly the end of the company itself--it's less clear what the implications of a Psystar victory would be.

According to one copyright lawyer, a Psystar victory wouldn't exactly throw the software industry into immediate chaos, leaving companies wondering how they are going to stop lawsuits against their own End User License Agreements.

Charles Baker, a partner at the Houston-based law firm said that software companies are not waiting with bated breath for the outcome of the trial. "I don't see this as an industry wide issue at this point," Baker said.