As Alsup awarded Apple summary judgment on multiple charges, he denied Psystar's. In December 2008, the Mac clone maker after Alsup had that Apple broke antitrust laws by tying Mac OS X to Mac hardware. Instead, Psystar argued that Apple abused federal copyright law, including the DMCA.

"Apple has not prohibited others from independently developing and using their own operating systems," Alsup noted. "Thus, Apple did not violate the public policy underlying copyright law or engage in copyright misuse."

Psystar has sold Intel-based computers preconfigured with Apple's Mac OS X since April 2008, when it began selling machines at . In July 2008, by suing Psystar in Alsup's California court.

Alsup's order does not put an end to the legal wrangling, since several of Apple's accusations, including breach of contract, trademark infringement and unfair competition, remain to be decided at trial. Also unaffected is a lawsuit that Psystar filed in a Miami federal court in August 2009, charging that , to Mac computers.

Last month, Psystar submitted an amended complaint to U.S. District Court Judge William Hoeveler, who is handling the Florida case, and asked him to rule that it is to sell machines with Snow Leopard. Hoeveler has yet to rule on Psystar's request.