you could have just put it in writing... that you do not recognise the new contract, as you have not ratified it, therefore, you are considering them in breach of the original contract and you will be terminating payments and they may withdraw service.
you can also inform them they must collect any equipment that belongs to them within a timely fasion and you will be charging storage fees after 2 weeks, or whatever.
they COULD try taking you to court, saying that you owe money, an ETF, or whatever... seems pretty unlikely they would win, or even attempt it...
just buy the phone for 500eur, get PAYG, and pay around 5eur per month for your phone, including calls, rather than the outrageous 75eur/month, or whatever the rate is...
then you get a fantastic video ipod, lots of storage, camera, wifi net device, callender and gaming platform, etc, with PAYG phone thrown in as an extra that you'll care even less about after someone puts skype on the thing.
fair use only states you can make a single backup copy to protect the physical media that you bought from wear and tear.
i doesn't say anything about formats, or have anything about if it is not available in a particular format you can make it yourself.
however, copyright law is mostly outmoded and irellevant these days. they can bang on all they want about piracy being a criminal offense, stealing, etc... it simply is not the case in law, copyright infringement is a civil offense, stealing is a criminal offense. the police cannot even get involved in civil matters and it's up to the copyright holder, or his agents, to take civil legal action if they want.
note: i don't condone anything, i just state facts and opinions.
an unfair contract is non-enforcable in law. the law actually states this. even if the party entered into it full aware of the consequences.
simply put, you CANNOT, under any circumstances, contract unreasonable rights over others and their property. if you do, the other party can ignore those claims as if they were never made.
take note: arguing that the party entered the contract willingly, fully aware of what rights they were acceding is NOT a legal defense against an unfair contract.
also take note: most contracts in existance have elements that can be considered unfair. these elements are UNENFORCABLE, and so the first party will normally not even try to enforce them and SAY they are letting you off as a good faith gesture.
besides that, if we are talking USA, the law relevant here SPECIFICALLY ALLOW unlocking of mobile phones. i am not entirely sure if that includes the right to unlock them from itunes and the apstore, but i suspect it would take someone and their day in court to find out.
as for the UK, i have never even heard anyone mention it is illegal. i think they just rely on you sticking out your contract or paying the ETF, either way they are rolling in money.
PAYG phone are pretty much all subsidised, the idea being you will make calls and top-up, that will make them money...
many places sell these phones locked, but some companies insist that they be unlocked.
carphone warehouse used to sell ONLY unlocked phones, but i believe they are selling some locked now.
phones 4 U also sell most of their phones unlocked. i bought a nokia 5300 there last year, i wanted to use it abroad, so i was going to go and get it unlocked, i thought i would try another SIM card first... it was already unlocked.
the way around the problem of selling unlocked subsidised phones is just to require the purchase of calling credit with the phone, which they all do now.
in fairness, they all charge about the same on all the networks here, so switching them on a brand new phone is not something that concerns them for now, what concerns them is that phones are far cheaper here than they are in many other countries, especially asia, so a great many people buy phones here just to send home to relatives. that won't be much of a problem with iphone.
for me, i just want a way to use it with my vodaphone PAYG (£2.50 per month, free calls to all family)
what utter nonsense.
have you even been out of your home town?
let's leave the nonsense about working conditions and just think about if it helps those countries...
we are talking about american owned companies operating in the developing and third world... the vast majority of the profit of the labour performed there goes straight out of the country to the american parent company. nothing is given or added to the community, at best, it lets the workers feed their families, but more usually, it cripples or kills them, leaving their children begging on the streets and wives with little option other than prostitution...
who benefits in those communities then?
you have heard about the rampant corruption in these places, right?
they take their bribes, factories go up, people are little more than slaves for the short while they can work before those conditions render them only burdens to their family.
yes, i see what you mean by helping them...
in most countries, including USA and UK, it is not illegal to unlock any phone that you own, regardless of whether you bought it subsidised or not, of course the only non-subsidised phone in history to be locked was the original iphone...
unlocking your phone has nothing to do with your contract, even if said contract was a condition of sale for the phone. you can unlock your phone for any number of reasons.
you might want to use it with other SIM cards abroad, you might have multiple SIM cards in your home country, you might even want to sell the phone and use a cheap one yourself...
that still does not guarantee you will breach your contract.
then, consider, a PART of your contract is the ETF. if you PAY the ETF you HAVE fulfilled your contract and in fact NOT in breach at all.
all of this is moot anyway. if you jump out of the full term early, especially within the first few months, they will likely make you give the phone back.
by the way, the ETF is NOT to guarantee them additional profit that they'd lose by you leaving, that would be close to embezzelment. it is to protect them against losses from subsidising the phones you got with the contract.
there is no AT&T in the UK mobile phone market.
it is refering to O2 in the UK and AT&T in the USA.
O2 is the exclusive carrier for iphone in the UK, much like AT&T is the exclusive carrier in the USA.
really isn't hard to work out that there can't be two exclusive carriers.
Slashdot Mirror
you could have just put it in writing... that you do not recognise the new contract, as you have not ratified it, therefore, you are considering them in breach of the original contract and you will be terminating payments and they may withdraw service.
you can also inform them they must collect any equipment that belongs to them within a timely fasion and you will be charging storage fees after 2 weeks, or whatever.
they COULD try taking you to court, saying that you owe money, an ETF, or whatever... seems pretty unlikely they would win, or even attempt it...
OR...
just buy the phone for 500eur, get PAYG, and pay around 5eur per month for your phone, including calls, rather than the outrageous 75eur/month, or whatever the rate is...
then you get a fantastic video ipod, lots of storage, camera, wifi net device, callender and gaming platform, etc, with PAYG phone thrown in as an extra that you'll care even less about after someone puts skype on the thing.
win/win for the customer.
that is not fair use.
fair use only states you can make a single backup copy to protect the physical media that you bought from wear and tear.
i doesn't say anything about formats, or have anything about if it is not available in a particular format you can make it yourself.
however, copyright law is mostly outmoded and irellevant these days. they can bang on all they want about piracy being a criminal offense, stealing, etc... it simply is not the case in law, copyright infringement is a civil offense, stealing is a criminal offense. the police cannot even get involved in civil matters and it's up to the copyright holder, or his agents, to take civil legal action if they want.
note: i don't condone anything, i just state facts and opinions.
more neo-liberate crap.
an unfair contract is non-enforcable in law. the law actually states this. even if the party entered into it full aware of the consequences.
simply put, you CANNOT, under any circumstances, contract unreasonable rights over others and their property. if you do, the other party can ignore those claims as if they were never made.
take note: arguing that the party entered the contract willingly, fully aware of what rights they were acceding is NOT a legal defense against an unfair contract.
also take note: most contracts in existance have elements that can be considered unfair. these elements are UNENFORCABLE, and so the first party will normally not even try to enforce them and SAY they are letting you off as a good faith gesture.
what a bunch of neo-liberal nonsense.
they made it. you gave them money. it's yours.
very simple.
besides that, if we are talking USA, the law relevant here SPECIFICALLY ALLOW unlocking of mobile phones. i am not entirely sure if that includes the right to unlock them from itunes and the apstore, but i suspect it would take someone and their day in court to find out.
as for the UK, i have never even heard anyone mention it is illegal. i think they just rely on you sticking out your contract or paying the ETF, either way they are rolling in money.
PAYG phone are pretty much all subsidised, the idea being you will make calls and top-up, that will make them money... many places sell these phones locked, but some companies insist that they be unlocked. carphone warehouse used to sell ONLY unlocked phones, but i believe they are selling some locked now. phones 4 U also sell most of their phones unlocked. i bought a nokia 5300 there last year, i wanted to use it abroad, so i was going to go and get it unlocked, i thought i would try another SIM card first... it was already unlocked. the way around the problem of selling unlocked subsidised phones is just to require the purchase of calling credit with the phone, which they all do now. in fairness, they all charge about the same on all the networks here, so switching them on a brand new phone is not something that concerns them for now, what concerns them is that phones are far cheaper here than they are in many other countries, especially asia, so a great many people buy phones here just to send home to relatives. that won't be much of a problem with iphone. for me, i just want a way to use it with my vodaphone PAYG (£2.50 per month, free calls to all family)
what utter nonsense. have you even been out of your home town? let's leave the nonsense about working conditions and just think about if it helps those countries... we are talking about american owned companies operating in the developing and third world... the vast majority of the profit of the labour performed there goes straight out of the country to the american parent company. nothing is given or added to the community, at best, it lets the workers feed their families, but more usually, it cripples or kills them, leaving their children begging on the streets and wives with little option other than prostitution... who benefits in those communities then? you have heard about the rampant corruption in these places, right? they take their bribes, factories go up, people are little more than slaves for the short while they can work before those conditions render them only burdens to their family. yes, i see what you mean by helping them...
in most countries, including USA and UK, it is not illegal to unlock any phone that you own, regardless of whether you bought it subsidised or not, of course the only non-subsidised phone in history to be locked was the original iphone... unlocking your phone has nothing to do with your contract, even if said contract was a condition of sale for the phone. you can unlock your phone for any number of reasons. you might want to use it with other SIM cards abroad, you might have multiple SIM cards in your home country, you might even want to sell the phone and use a cheap one yourself... that still does not guarantee you will breach your contract. then, consider, a PART of your contract is the ETF. if you PAY the ETF you HAVE fulfilled your contract and in fact NOT in breach at all. all of this is moot anyway. if you jump out of the full term early, especially within the first few months, they will likely make you give the phone back. by the way, the ETF is NOT to guarantee them additional profit that they'd lose by you leaving, that would be close to embezzelment. it is to protect them against losses from subsidising the phones you got with the contract.
Italy, for one, will have two carriers. http://gizmodo.com/387978/italys-iphone-to-have-two-carriers-the-end-of-exclusivity
there is no AT&T in the UK mobile phone market. it is refering to O2 in the UK and AT&T in the USA. O2 is the exclusive carrier for iphone in the UK, much like AT&T is the exclusive carrier in the USA. really isn't hard to work out that there can't be two exclusive carriers.