Is it illegal to unlock your iPhone? No?

johno · 08-30-07, 09:56 AM

Late last year, the U.S. Copyright Office ruled that users can legally unlock their phone in order to use it on a competing carrier's network. Phillip Torrone from Make Magazine posted an article last week touching on this subject.

This is a grab from this Copyright Office Document.

So, what is the hold up? What legal battles does iphonesimfree.com face?

OK, so it *is* legal to unlock your iPhone, but should you? Will future updates disable the unlocked phone? We have hackers smart enough to break the lock, I am sure Apple has hackers working on their side too. Do they care? Who knows, I am sure ATT has to care.

What do you think?

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**ksong12** · 08-30-07, 10:20 AM

Well, yeah, its legal, but there is nothing protecting Apple from locking it again (if possible).

There is no law guaranteeing an unlock (except in France)

arglebargle · 08-30-07, 11:20 AM

It is not an issue for an individual to unlock their phone.

I believe the issue is a DCMA one, of someone reverse engineering AT&T locking code, and selling the solution.

CodeBubba · 08-30-07, 11:45 AM

It would only be illegal to unlock the phone if you signed a contract with the provider and said contract stated that unlocking it was against the contract while the contract was in force.

Still ... if you don't like the deal that Apple/AT&T crafted then you can always just go buy something else.

-CB