Slashdot Mirror
German Court Rules iPhone Locking Legal
l-ascorbic writes "A German court has overturned Vodafone's temporary injunction against T-Mobile. Two weeks ago, the British mobile network won an injunction forcing T-Mobile to sell iPhones that were not locked to its network. Vodafone argued that locking is an anti-competitive practice, and sought to force the German network to permanently allow the use of the phones on other networks. After the injunction was granted, T-Mobile offered the unlocked phones for €999 ($1473), and these will now be withdrawn from sale."
nothing to see here...technical competence will trump DRM every time. Something about information wanting to be free. The US phones are unlocked, the German phones will be too. Just this way, the carriers won't make any money off the unlocking. Remove nose, face, spite. Amazing companies still don't get it.
Will the already-sold phones remain unlocked? Or is another bricking patch on the way?
What about the stupid German anti-hacking laws? Or is it okay for corporations to circumvent this kind of restriction? I'm guessing it probably is... But I wonder what would have happened if it was just individuals doing this, would it have been allowed then?
Free software, free thought, free society.
The masses will snap up "cheap" phones with evil contracts that can't be comprehended by non-lawyers.
Other phones become a niche product with rising costs. Eventually nobody offers them, because they are less profitable.
You're getting the US cellphone industry. Enjoy!
That's the first thing I had noticed. Is that the true cost for an unlocked iPhone? I had thought selling a phone for $500 is insane, I might have yet to see everything...
The "if you don't like it don't buy one" logic only works to an extent, every single time a vendor locks a phone it squeezes the market place a little more. The bottom line is I should be able to do what i want with something i pay for, and apple can fuck off and die if they think their control should extend past the sale (or any vendor for that matter)
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Holy scheize, 999! There's nobody in the world I want to talk to that badly.
Brett
If I had mod points, I'd use 'em. But I don't, so I'll just voice my agreement instead:
If it's my stuff (ie, not leased, or rented, or otherwise owned by another party), then I'll be doing whatever the fuck I please with it, as long as it is legal, and nobody can stop me.
The free market works in a lot of different ways. The same ideology that states "if you don't like the Terms of Service, don't buy it" also states "if Apple doesn't want people fucking with the hardware they sell, then they should stop selling it to people."
Kid-proof tablet..
The official unlock involves a piece of data that is stored on the phone and likely also stored on a server at apple. When you unlock it, iTunes reads stuff from the iPhone, sends it to apples server which looks it up in the database. If the phone is marked "ok to unlock", apples server sends back further data (which is unique to the phone) and iTunes sends it to the iPhone to unlock it.
So short of some kind of hack attack or raid on apples data center (both of which are 100% illegal and will probably get you thrown into federal pound me in the ass prison) you cant find a way to unlock the iPhone the same way as Apple does. You MIGHT be able to brute-force the unlock data for one specific iPhone but that wont help unlock other iPhones.
You're actually quite wrong here. I am an American who lived in the UK for more than a year. Mobile phones from the big companies are locked in many cases and its not seen as wrong. A trip down to any High Street will yield a few cell phone unlocking shops.
The more expensive handsets, such as my Nokia E61 or my housemate's Nokia N95, were unlocked. Why? Vodafone's contracts are written differently than any US carriers. When I sign up for a cell phone I agree to pay a lump-sum amount of cash in 12, 18, or 24 monthly payments depending on the length of the contract. Incentives increase with the length of the contract. If I cancel the contract at any time, then I must pay the remainder of the sum and forfeit the monthly payment schedule. In this way, Vodafone is already promised a certain amount of cash in exchange for the handset. They don't care if you leave at that point since they've already made the money.
I really find it disturbing that Slashdot heralds Europe as some panacea in the cell world. It's really not as bright and wonderful as you people try to make it out to be. Ultimately these corporate entities are out to make money within a certain set of rules. Cell phone locking, unfortunately, is a fact of life in the UK. When it isn't, its because of the way the contract is written.
If most of the customers don't buy it (and they can choose not too, since markets are, for the most part, democratic), the product will be forced to disappear or change according to the needs of the market.
So stop whining! If you don't like the terms relating to the product, just don't buy it! It's as simple as that.
You are an idiot, AC. And while I doubt that you'll ever read this, I believe that there are many other mistaken individuals out there who will.
If I sell you something, you're free to do with it as you wish. Whether or not it is discounted (or even sold at a loss) is not a factor in your future use of that item. You own it. It is yours.
For example, there is a grocery store around the corner from my house which has been there since long before I was born. They discount their milk to such an extent that it is sold at a loss, in the hope that they'll recover some of that loss through additional (or future) purchases.
This is really a fairly common practice in retail, at all levels.
Your mentality suggests that it would be OK for the grocer to dictate how one might use that gallon of milk, just because they sold it at a loss, or to punish someone for not buying more profitable items along with it. Both of which would be totally and obviously absurd.
But it is no less absurd when it is electronics instead of dairy goods. They're still just goods being transacted with money.
Your mentality is unhealthy. It defies logic, and goes against thousands of years of property ownership.
Kid-proof tablet..
"Cellphone contract changed its terms" - Go elsewhere
"But my cellphone is locked" - Buy another phone
"But my music doesn't play on other phones" - Buy music somewhere else
"But my internet connection throttles other music stores' bandwidth" - Get another internet connection
"But all the ISPs do it" - Start your own
See the problem now? ONE of these restrictions is not a problem because you can "take your business elsewhere" , but when you have this bullshit EVERYWHERE then there's nothing you can do. Now before people start mentioning we have unlocked phones. Yes, we have them TODAY , and laws against this bullshit is sensible to ensure we have them in the future. Now if you think the magical "free market" will save the day then you are mistaken on two counts:
a) That we have a free market.
b) That if we had a free market, it would remain free without anybody stopping companies from doing bullshit like this.
And if I buy an iPhone without a contract, what then? I guess it'd be mine, wouldn't it?
But even if I buy it WITH a contract, it's just a contract for AT&T service. I still get to use the phone however they want, on whatever networks I want -- I'm just obligated to continue to pay AT&T for the duration of the contract term.
Kid-proof tablet..