The unauthorized Mac clone maker has won the right to continue its countersuit against Apple. In an order signed last Friday, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that Psystar–whose antitrust complaint against Apple was tentatively dismissed last year–can refocus that complaint around copyright misuse. “Psystar may well have a legitimate interest in establishing misuse [of copyright] independent of Apple’s claims against it–for example, to clarify the risks it confronts by marketing the products at issue in this case or others it may wish to develop,” Alsup wrote in his order. “Moreover, if established, misuse would bar enforcement (for the period of misuse) not only as to defendants who are actually party to the challenged license but also as to potential defendants not themselves injured by the misuse who may have similar interests.”

The ruling is something of a setback for Apple (AAPL), which had argued that Psystar’s request to resubmit an amended counterclaim was a transparent “attempt to repackage its dismissed antitrust allegations under the guise of copyright misuse.” Because if Psystar does somehow manage to prove that Apple abused copyright laws, it could open up the market for Mac clones–or at least make it quite a bit more difficult for Apple to drop the hammer on other companies intent on peddling them.

Of course, if legal avenues fail it, Apple could easily hamstring clone makers in other ways. After all, it’s not incumbent on the company to ensure that its operating system works on non-Apple hardware, is it?

Blu-ray is a bag of hurt.”

– Apple CEO Steve Jobs

Mac clone maker Psystar isn’t letting its uncertain future undermine its product road map. Though embroiled in a nasty legal spat with Apple (AAPL) over the legality of its use of Mac OS X in its Open Computer, Psystar this week defiantly announced plans for Mac notebook clone and began shipping Hackintoshes with both Blu-ray drives and GeForce 9800GT video cards, neither of which is available in official Macs.

In a press release announcing these new options, Psystar president Rudy Pedraza upbraided Apple for delaying support for Blu-ray, which Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently described as “a bag of hurt” for consumers. “Blu-ray has already won the format war,” Pedraza said. “Not only is there fully functional and mature support for Blu-ray in other operating systems, but you can now rent Blu-ray discs from almost any rental chain. Blu-ray has become pervasive technology that is being widely adopted by consumers everywhere.”

And that’s all well and good. But until Apple adds Blu-ray support to OS X, Psystar’s Mac clones can’t play back Blu-ray video. Which means they’re only good for reading and writing data. From the Psystar FAQ:

Is Blu-Ray supported in my OS?
Blu-Ray Read/Write capabilities are fully functional in all operating systems offered by Psystar. Blu-Ray video playback requires support from the media player software. There is no Blu-Ray software capable of playing back Blu-Ray video for Mac OS or Linux.

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• Speaking of “Destroying Competition,” Meet Our Legal Team From Mortify, Debase and Demolish LLP
• Psyonara …
• “OpenMac” Not Open for Much Longer