Upgrade to an iBrick

Apple not looking to ‘proactively disable’ unlocked iPhones – Engadget

So first you spent the big bucks to get an iPhone and Apple rewarded you by dropping their price? Now you decided, “I don’t like the fact that I bought this equipment from Apple and they are telling me I can only choose AT&T.” So you unlocked your iPhone and now Apple will reward you by making it an iBrick.

The law that protects that little chip making your iPhone only work with AT&T is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which typically makes it illegal to circumvent a function like this. However, it is 100% legal for you to unlock your phone for the purpose of using it on another carrier.¹ I usually fault the govenrment for being just plan stupid when it comes to technology, but to my surprise they actually wrote in an exception that says you can unlock a cell phone to use it with another carrier!

Now here is the catch, this exception has never been challenged so who know how the nut job ninth circuit will interpret it.  Still, I have to ask, isn’t it illegal then for Apple to do anything to prevent you from executing this privilege? All I know is I can’t wait for the class action lawsuit; put me on that jury.