Apple’s Walled Garden Springs a Leak

So Apple will get to keep its walled garden, but will have to work a little harder to tend it.

That, at least, is the view of the federal judge who presided over the case brought against the iPhone maker by Epic Games. In a ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers disagreed that Apple’s tight control of distribution of apps to its devices makes the company an illegal monopoly. However, the judge did find that Apple’s rules barring apps from offering alternative payment options outside of the company’s system qualifies as “anticompetitive conduct” under California law.