Another iPhone story- The Hack

[TheForce]

First of all before all you legal experts get your panties in a bunch, Congress specifically exempted Cell phones from the DMCA. So not only is it legal to hack or modify a cell phone, any discussion of it is also protected under the first amendment.

If you bought an iphone and were wanting to use it on a T-Mobile network- Here's all you need to do.


This morning, I looked at the Saturday paper and on the front page was this story of how this 17 year old kid cracked the iphone which took him all summer to achieve. Actually, George Hotz worked with a team of un-named associates to achieve the complex crack which includes some internal hardware work as well as software code entries. The process is in the blog if you're curious.

George has put his hacked iphone for sale but ran into the usual crooks on ebay. He also suspects that since the crack is now public, a company will spring up using the process as a service. He is not happy about that.

Apple and AT&T have refused to comment.

Is this good for Apple? Good for AT&T? Good for T-Mobile?

My opinion- Apple could get sued. T-Mobile will benefit. AT&T will lose.

 

[mike123abc]

I suspect it will be a cat and mouse game for a while. I bet iphones will be updated in a way to break the hack. Then the hackers will start over again, then Apple will update again, round and round....

 

[Bogy]

Legal issues facing those who unlock the i-phone
iPhone hackers could face legal battle - Security - MSNBC.com

It seems that unlocking the phone for your own personal use is ok, but doing so for personal gain isn't.

Also, George traded the unlocked phone for a "sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones".
Finding JTAG on the iPhone

 

[TheForce]

Bogy- Very interesting, indeed. I'll tell you this copyright stuff ever since DMCA has gotten to be a real mess, opening up for all sorts of interpretations. I recall walking out of my class on DMCA several years ago thinking this will never stick. Unfortunately it has.

I don't know about the software only version, but what Hotz did in his (and company)hardware/software hack was to remove some of the code that locks it. This would be a new twist to copyright enforcement if AT&T has a case that not using their service, not using their lock code is a copyright violation.
And, I don't understand the point about doing it for a profitable service vs, doing it yourself. The only aspect of the old copyright law that pertained to profitability was burden of proof that you violated the fair use provision. However, the main violation was not profitability but one of publication / distribution outside your household.
In my opinion, we have a case of David and Goliath here that is more than correct interpretation of the copyright law. I can relate to that when I went up against the legal at Disney back in 1990 on a copyright disagreement. Yes, I won that case before it went to court.

One more thing- I'm sure you read it but the guy who traded with Hotz also hired him to work on stuff for his cell phone supply company. I was wondering how long that would take. I admire Hotz for not just his skills in hardware but also his business sense.