Franklin Ace

Apple has been busy clamping down on threats to its computers and operating system since before Psystar's young founder Rudy Pedraza was even born. In 1982, Apple sued Franklin Computing, maker of the Franklin Ace, in an important precedent-setting lawsuit that established that operating systems could be copyrighted.

 Apple alleged that much of the Franklin read-only memory (ROM) and operating system had been lifted directly from Apple's versions found on its Apple II. Though Franklin was victorious in the early rounds in lower courts, Apple prevailed when the case was heard before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.