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Psystar is taking a stand on its claim that when it bought copies of Mac OS X from Apple and resellers, it has the right to do anything with the software. Psystar now claims that through the first-sale doctrine it has the right to sell open computers with Mac OS X presinstalled.

A passage was extracted from Psystar’s court submission last week:

Once a copyright owner consents to the sale of particular copies of a work, the owner may not thereafter exercise distribution rights with respect to those copies. See, e.g., Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, 210 U.S. 339, 350-51 (1908) (recognizing more than 100 years ago the concept of first sale and the limitations imposed upon a copyright owner in light thereof). Psystar acquired lawful copies of the Mac OS from Apple; those copies were lawfully acquired from authorized distributors including some directly from Apple; Psystar paid good and valuable consideration for those copies; Psystar disposed of those lawfully acquired copies to third-parties.