No unlocked iPhone for you!

UnlockediphoneThe unlocked iPhone has been the holy grail since Apple released it tethered to AT&T.  Engadget reported this week that a company had unlocked the iPhone to work with any network and the software to allow owners to do so would be released today.  Not surprisingly, the company has been contacted by a California law firm on the behalf of AT&T and the software release is on hold until the validity of the AT&T demands can be assessed by the software company.

iphoneunlocking.com, a subsidiary ofUniquePhones (www.uniquephones.com). was poised and ready to releaseremote software unlocking services for the iphone today at 12 noon EST.The sale of unlocking codes is on hold after the company received atelephone call from a Menlo Park, California, law firm at approximately2:54 a.m. this morning (GMT).

After saying they were phoning on behalf of AT&T, the law firmpresented issues such as copyright infringement and illegal softwaredissemination. Uniquephones is taking legal advice to ascertain whetherAT&T was sending a warning shot or directly threatening legalaction. The logistics of different continents as well as it being aweekend factors into how the situation develops.

Until an assessment is made of the potential of legal action,Uniquephones is unable to release the unlocking software for sale. Thecompany spokesperson also said that the company would also beevaluating what to eventually do with the software should they belegally denied the right to sell it. A substantial delay caused by anylegal action would render the unlocking software a less valuablecommodity as well as creating unforeseen security issues for the company.

From what I have read, unlocking a phone to be used on another carrier is totally legal in the US, so I’m not sure what the basis for this claim from AT&T might be.  However, I have read that since the iPhone is not just a phone, is in fact an iPod that is designed to only work with Apple’s iTunes Store, that Apple could make a claim on that basis.  The soap opera will no doubt be played on the interwebs for all to see.

loading

Comments have been disabled for this post