Mac cloner Psystar won't be taking its case to the Supreme Court after all. The Court has denied (PDF) the company's request to appeal an earlier ruling in favor of Apple, effectively settling the issue of whether selling non-Mac machines with OS X installed is a violation of Apple's copyrights.

Apple won its original victory against Psystar in November 2009. That's when US District Judge William Alsup ruled that Psystar had violated Apple's copyrights by distributing OS X with its clones, also violating the anti-circumvention provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. One of Psystar's defenses was that it was protected by the first sale doctrine, which would restrict Apple from deciding what Psystar does with copies of OS X after they were sold the first time, but Judge Alsup didn't buy it. Psystar appealed the decision in September 2011, but the court once again decided in Apple's favor.

Psystar had vowed to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court—an ambitious goal that has now been dashed. "We are sad," Psystar's law firm Camara & Sibley, LLP told CNET. "I'm sure that the Supreme Court will take a case on this important issue eventually."