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Apple Sued Over iPhone Bricking

Posted by Zonk on from the better-than-the-price-change-suit dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The week's debate over the iPhone 1.1.1 has finally resulted in legal action. InfoWeek reports that on Friday, California resident Timothy Smith sued Apple in a class-action case in Santa Clara County Superior court. The suit was filed by Damian Fernandez, the lawyer who's been soliciting plaintiffs all week for a case against Apple. The suit doesn't ask for a specific dollar amount, but seeks an injunction against Apple, which prevents it from selling the iPhone with any software lock. It also asks that Apple be enjoined from denying warranty service to users of unlocked iPhone, and from requiring iPhone users to get their phone service through AT&T."

1 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Stupid lawsuit again...? by BlueParrot · · Score: 1, Troll

    While i agree that Apple should be forced to sell unlocked phones, modifying a product in a non-approved way DOES invalidate your waranty. Why should the vendor be held reliable if YOU break his software?


    a)Apple deliberately made the update brick the phone if third party applications were installed. There is no technical reason for this, other than to prevent people from unlocking their phone. It is not a matter of the customer doing something incompatible, it is a matter of Apple releasing a patch that deliberately destroys the devices of people who have done something they didn't like.

    b)While I can agree that they can make their warranty subject to what you do with the phone, this doesn't absolve them from responsibility if there are unrelated defects. As an example, if touch-screen is made from an inferior material and scratches easily, saying "well you modified the software, so tough luck" is not acceptable.

    Bad car analogy: If you send your car in for an oil-change and the mechanic notes you have used tieres from a competitor, then it is not acceptable for the mechanic to disable your engine to punish you. Also, if the fuel tank suffers from a design flaw causing it to catch fires in the case of a crash, then saying "you changed the tires, no warranty" is not an acceptable excuse.

    Basically this lawyer is throwing up a lot of stuff to see what sticks, in my opinion some of it should.