iPhone Owners Demand To See Apple Source Code∞
The crux of the issue is that the iPhone is exclusively available for AT&T, and that the 1.1.1 update bricked the phones of users who unlocked them to use on other carriers.
First, I want to say something about the fact that this is an antitrust lawsuit:
The lawsuit, which was filed in October 2007, accuses Apple and AT&T of violating antitrust laws, including the Sherman Act, by agreeing to a multi-year deal that locks U.S. iPhone owners into using the mobile carrier.
In order to buy any subsidized phone (like the iPhone) in the U.S., you have to agree to a multi-year contract in which you are locked into using a mobile carrier. Many of those phones are also exclusive to a single carrier. Why is it monopolistic when Apple does it?
That said, the specific complaint is that Apple specifically tried to hurt the users of jailbroken phones with the 1.1.1 update, as opposed to the update coincidentally happening to brick the phones of jailbroken users. Given Apple’s track record of updates coincidentally
breaking compatibility with competing products or hacks, Apple’s legal team has its work cut out for it if they want to try to argue that it was a coincidence.
Unlike Apple’s back-and-forth with Palm about the Pre syncing with iTunes, I think Apple is in the wrong here. If I pay Apple for an iPhone, I expect to be able to do whatever I want with it—whether do what Apple wants and use it with AT&T or jailbreak it so I can use it with T-Mobile is my decision and mine alone. Apple is trying to tell users what they can and cannot do with something that they paid money for, and that is clearly not right.
Furthermore, unless I’m mistaken, the DMCA allows users to jailbreak a device or bypass any sort of protection or encryption for the purpose of using it with another network. If that is the case, Apple is violating users’ legal rights as well.
However, there’s really no way to prove it without getting access to the source code. To the plaintiffs, I say: good luck getting it from Apple, of all companies.
