Paystar, the unauthorized Florida "cloner" with dreams of breaking Apple's lock on its hardware, has had its horns broken by a California federal court, which threw out its antitrust counterclaim against Apple's EULA.

Back in the summer, Apple charged Paystar with copyright and trademark infringement for selling a hacked Mac OS X on so-called OpenComputer white box gear aiming to stop it dead in its tracks.

In response to Paystar's antitrust countersuit a month later, the judge has now said that Apple isn't a relevant market in and of itself even though a one-brand market is possible. But in this case Paystar's "counter-intuitive" argument didn't cut it.

He ruled that "Whether products are part of the same or different markets under antitrust law depends in whether consumers view those products as reasonable substitutes for each other and would switch among them in response to relative prices." Meaning Apple gear isn't "unique" and is interchangeable with Microsoft gear - well, legally at least.

The judge said Paystar's lawyers can try another tack and have until December 8 to do so. At risk are any profits Paystar has made and a recall of the boxes it's sold plus penalties.