A federal judge dismissed on Tuesday charges from a small computer maker, Psystar, that accused Apple of being a monopolist because it tightly controls which computer makers build machines using its Macintosh operating system software.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup has given Apple its latest victory against cloners that create and sell machines based on the company’s software. Psystar, based in Doral, was challenging Apple’s requirement that only Apple devices can use its software, which Psystar contends illegally ties the sale of one product to another. Psystar argues that Microsoft or the open source Linux can be installed on devices from any number of manufacturers, unlike the Apple software.

Judge Alsup ruled Apple’s products do not constitute a market to dominate in a 16-page decision. Therefore, Apple cannot be considered a monopolist. An Apple spokesman had no comment, while a Psystar representative could not be reached for one. All of this started in July, when Psystar was sued by Apple when the small company began selling Apple clones. The suit seeks to effectively shut the company down for allegedly violating the terms of use of its software. However, the suit remains intact, but Alsup’s decision gives Apple the upper hand in this litigation.

From now on, Apple will have rigid control over which computer makers build machines using any Macintosh OS software, without anyone having something to say about this. Anyway, even if Psystar would have won, Apple could always decide to “accidentally” break the OS like they did with jailbroken iPhones. There really isn’t a big market for Psystar’s machines and it is quite clear people will prefer to buy Apples. All in all, people cannot risk buying an OS from Apple with Psystar machines because if their system crashes, they’ll unlikely be able to load the OS again, throwing their money away.