Well as of this report from the BBC, iPhone owners who have attempted to unlock their phone now have very expensive bricks. The question arises did the unlocking hack actually damage the software of the phone, or did Apple help it along? In either case people who use 3rd party software run this type of risk. The real legal question here is did Apple and AT&T conspire to force buyers to use only AT&T and is that exactly legal? I’m really thinking it is probably in the gray area of legal. I’m sure Apple says something along the lines “We can allow only AT&T provide essential service to our phone because we built it!” Well that would be like General Motors saying “We can allow only Exxon to sell fuel to our automobiles because we built them!” It’s a bunch of SHIT!
Now it doesn’t bother me any that people were:
- Dumb for taking the chance with a really expensive piece of electronics
- Dumb enough to buy an iPhone in the first fucking place.
I live in Germany where we don’t have iPhones. I’m sure that if Apple tries to sell the stupid thing here one of the first things that they are going to have to deal with is this “Only this carrier can provide service to our phone.” It’ll take about 48 hours for it to become an issue in European courts and Apple will probably lose.
For those of you who have just lost your iPhone to the upgrade I’ve got some advice for you. Get a different phone!
