iPhone Unlocked- Apple Fans Rejoice!!
There are now two companies that have the solution to unlock the Apple iPhone so that it can connect to more than the AT&T Network. iPhoneSimFree has released a solution that has been validated by Engadget, and will be filling orders next week. iPhone Unlocking by Unique Phones also has an unlock, but is currently being held up by Apple lawyers. For more information on the legality of unlocking your cell phone (and if you have to fear a possible suit from Apple), read this post, this post, and this post.
“Is all this legal? Technically, yes. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it a crime to circumvent digital encryption–primarily an anti-piracy measure–with certain exceptions. One of those exceptions is for unlocking a cell phone. “It’s an exception that’s never been tested” in the courts, says Timothy Wu, a former telecomm lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School.”
“The provision likely to be of most interest to consumers is the one allowing cell phones to be unlocked and used on other networks. The Copyright Office allowed this exception because the software that prohibits users from accessing their phone’s firmware has little to do with copyright and much to do with a business model. “The underlying activity sought to be performed by the owner of the handset is to allow the handset to do what it was manufactured to do—lawfully connect to any carrier,” writes the government in explanation. “This is a noninfringing activity by the user… The purpose of the software lock appears to be limited to restricting the owner’s use of the mobile handset to support a business model, rather than to protect access to a copyrighted work itself.”"
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 10:20 pm and is tagged with columbia law school, digital millennium copyright act, mobile handset, apple fans, digital encryption, unlocking a cell phone, iphone, t network, engadget, iphonesimfree, copyright office, telecomm, business model, firmware, anti piracy, exceptions, provision, lawyer, lawyers, cell phones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
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on August 25th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
[...] iPhone Unlocked- Apple Fans Rejoice!! One of those exceptions is for unlocking a cell phone. ?It?s an exception that?s never been tested? in the courts, says Timothy Wu, a former telecomm lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School.? ?The provision likely to be of most … [...]