Talk about spoilers. Bloomberg News reports that Judge Jeremy Fogel has dismissed a lawsuit claiming Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his executives lied to shareholders about backdating 6,428 stock-option grants issued from 1997 to 2002. With apologies to Fake Steve apologists, there's no longer any reason to read Dan Lyon's Options, a fictionalized account of the legal troubles Jobs faced over the backdating scandal. (Except for the fact that it's howlingly funny.) Even Lyons's ending is less of a letdown than this.

In the end, Judge Fogel dismissed the suit because it was based on three-year old statements, which Apple successfully argued were too old to consider in court. Fogel did allow room for a Lyons sequel, however, telling plaintiffs they could file the suit again if they could show Apple executives lied after July 30, 2003.

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