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Can Apple + AT&T Shut Down iPhone Unlockers?

aalobode writes "Do Apple and AT&T have the legal right to stop hackers from selling unlocked iPhones? Under their terms, only AT&T may sell iPhones, and Apple gets a commission. When unlocked iPhones are used on other providers' networks, AT&T and hence Apple get nothing beyond what they earned on the initial sale of the hardware. Can they prohibit unlocking? Reselling? The article in Businessweek gives the for and against arguments, but leans toward the view that the hackers may have the law on their side for once."

11 of 318 comments (clear)

  1. No $#%!, Sherlock by conspirator57 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I bought a computer and have the right to modify it and subsequently turn around and sell it? Amazing!

    What will I do with this new-found freedom? ...the same thing we do every night, Stimpy: try to take over the world!

    --
    "If still these truths be held to be
    Self evident."
    -Edna St. Vincent Millay
    1. Re:No $#%!, Sherlock by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's Stimpy and the Brain
      It's Stimpy and the Brain
      One's an eediot and the other's a rodent!

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  2. Re:"only AT&T may sell iPhones" by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 5, Funny

    You do the math.

    (sqrt(270000) * 146000) / pi = 24148205.619474491768596100626108

  3. Re:Do I own it or not by MarkovianChained · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Is it illegal to open up the iphone and melt it down?" Is it illegal to blend it? :)

  4. Re:I don't even have to RTFA by arodland · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... so they're going to send ninjas with screwdrivers into the streets to steal people's iPhones, make hardware modifications, and then quietly return them?

  5. Re:"only AT&T may sell iPhones" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The question:

    Form a square with every iPhone sold and mark the phones that are in the first row. Make a phone call from every marked iPhone to every activated iPhone. Place the phone bills in a circle, what is the circle's diameter?

  6. Re:In Finland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I hope so since they are frozen to your lips.

  7. Re:Good, so I can delete the software by IthnkImParanoid · · Score: 2, Funny

    violates the software license agreement, so you infringe copyright.

    Game over, Phoenix Wright.

    --
    It's nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.
  8. Some things never change by dave562 · · Score: 2, Funny

    When I was a 17 year old kid I had an unlocked Oki 900 that I used on AT&T's network. I'm pretty sure they weren't too happy that the phone could switch between five different sets of ESN/MIN pairs.

  9. Re:Stimpy? by Clock+Nova · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering? Pinky: I think so Brain, but isn't Regis Philbin already married?
    --
    There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
  10. Israeli Team Unblocks iPhone by LongLiv3Pearl3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since an Israeli team unblocked the iPhone, obstructing this hack would be an act of anti-Semitism.