NJ Teen Unlocks IPhone From AT&T Network

[Tesha]

Source: AP

NJ Teen Unlocks IPhone From AT&T Network

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

A teenager in New Jersey has broken the lock that ties Apple's iPhone
to AT&T's wireless network, freeing the most hyped cell phone ever for
use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones.

George Hotz, 17, confirmed Friday that he had unlocked an iPhone and
was using it on T-Mobile's network, the only major U.S. carrier apart
from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology.

While the possibility of switching from AT&T to T-Mobile may not be
a major development for U.S. consumers, it opens up the iPhone for
use on the networks of overseas carriers.

"That's the big thing," said Hotz, in a phone interview from his
home in Glen Rock.

<more>

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/24/financial/f081724D48.DTL&tsp=1

---

You knew it wouldbe done very quickly;
now it apparently has been accomplished.

Tesha

[rurallib]

1. Hope he doesn't have any accidents.

[MADem]

2. What a hopeful headline!!! See, some kids ARE learning!!

We're not a nation of slothful fools, apparently!!!

The hack, which Hotz posted Thursday to his blog, is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software. It takes about two hours to perform. Since the details are public, it seems likely that a small industry may spring up to buy U.S. iPhones, unlock them and send them overseas.


"That's exactly, like, what I don't want," Hotz said. "I don't want people making money off this."


He said he wished he could make the instructions simpler, so users could modify the phones themselves.


"But that's the simplest I could make them," Hotz said.


The modification leaves the iPhone's many functions, including a built-in camera and the ability to access Wi-Fi networks, intact. The only thing that won't work is the "visual voicemail" feature, which shows voice messages as if they were incoming e-mail.


Hotz collaborated online with four other people, two of them in Russia, to develop the unlocking process.

[onehandle]

3. Actually it took a lot longer that expected. Almost 2 months.

Techies were predicting a crack within a week of release, but being an Apple product it proved to be more difficult than expected.

[AX10]

4. Great to hear!

:thumbsup:

[David__77]

5. Good. A blow for democracy.

This is a thing that's good for consumers.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Prediction

AT&T will take some step to lock the phones again. Another hack will surface to free them. Law suits will be filed, hilarity will ensue.

[MADem]

7. The kid is SELLING the phone. Bid is up over two thousand bucks...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230164884672

[Kelvin Mace]

8. Oh yeah,

law suits will follow.

[MADem]

9. I'd love to know what they'd charge him with....

Fiddling with something he purchased outright?

[Posteritatis]

10. That's illegal in the US now - DMCA, etc. (nt)

[MADem]

11. Off to the courts, then. And the conservative CATO bunch just might fund the kid's defense.

The argument could be made that the kid isn't ADDING anything, he's just taking something away.

[Posteritatis]

12. That doesn't really matter under the current laws

It's illegal under the DMCA to even discuss how something like that works, even if it's purely for personal purposes. If you were told by someone how the kid unlocked it, you'd be guilty of reverse-engineering for merely having the knowledge, under some of the more popular interpretations of the thing.

It's an absolutely asinine law, it's been on the books for years, and I think it's fought off every challenge against it so far unscathed.

(And, of course, the US is pressuring every other country on the planet to adopt a version of it.)

[MADem]

16. I don't think that's entirely correct. There have been victories against DMCA.

The trick is having good lawyers who can argue from the perspectives of patents, copyrights AND original ideas.

It's gone through a couple of modifications since it was first written as well.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/

Here's a "circumvention" case that was victorious--it's a lot simpler than the phone, certainly: http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Chamberlain_v_Skylink/

And another, a "reverse engineering" case: http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Lexmark_v_Static_Control/


I see wiggle room here. The argument can be made, like in the LEXMARK case, that the kid came up with an original idea. ATT might find themselves in Antitrust land, too, if they pursue. And, if there's end-user agreement issues, I think the phone that the kid modified wasn't originally purchased by him--so it's secondhand junk as far as he's concerned.

We'll see how/if it plays out in time, I suppose...

[Deja Q]

20. Since 1998. It hasn't helped corporate lawsuits either...

The old Lexmark lawsuit over toner cartridges has me in giggles all the time.

[Posteritatis]

22. Remind me? (nt)

[MADem]

25. My second link above is to that lawsuit Hypno cites. NT

[NYC Liberal]

28. Actually cell phone unlocking is one of the exemptions to the DMCA

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061124-8280.html

[MADem]

38. Another link with discussion relative to this issue at post 37. I think the kid is good to go.

Great cite, BTW--very concise!!!

[Kelvin Mace]

18. Felony violation of the DMCA

He reverse-engineered copy protection, a serious crime.

As to civil suits, they will SLAPP away.

[MADem]

24. See post sixteen. Others have done similar, and won the day.

If his hacks can be viewed as "original work" then they will have to step back. And they've got an antitrust problem if they're trying to prevent people from using the telcom carrier of their choice using federal law to do it.

I wouldn't be surprised if T Mobile files an amicus brief on his behalf--maybe even pays all his fees, to boot.

This isn't as clear cut as one might think....

[ariesgem]

30. It's now at $50,100.00 with 88 bids...

:wow:

[AngryOldDem]

36. Just checked that site...

Notice says the seller has ended the bidding because of a "listing error." ???

[Gman]

13. He said he wants to "hack the brain"

and be a neurosurgeon. LOL!

[L0oniX]

14. BWAHAHAHAH ...I hate AT&T

[northzax]

17. this isn't AT&T, you know

it's Apple who insisted on all the locking. what was then Cingular just signed the deal Apple put in front of them.

[mountainvue]

15. Who says the youth of America is ill educated?

I love this kid.

[Posteritatis]

23. The oldth of America does

But I kinda figured that's been the case for the last few dozen generations. ;)

[NashVegas]

19. Young Mr. Spocks

Big business wanted a trained generation of tech workers who could and would eliminate realms of jobs by making those labor /skillsets no longer necessary for the corporate payroll.

What they never counted on was Mr. Spock might also make their business strategies untenable.

Apple made righteous bucks by giving AT&T an exclusive.

Gosh, Spock just fucked that up, huh?

[Duer 157099]

21. Wow. Bid is over $13,000 now on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230164884672&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=013

edit to add: and over 78,000 page views of the auction! It's over $15k now

[MADem]

26. Some douchebag has screwed with the bids--it's at US $35,000,100.00

and we know that's unlikely to stand.

[Duer 157099]

27. It's over $100M now -- I don't understand how they do that

There are over 70 bidders, and they all have a history with ebay. How do they get away with this, if they're just playing around? If they retract their bid, that gets noted on their account.

Do hackers hijack ebay accounts for games like this?

[MADem]

29. That might be it--I'm no expert in the Ways of EBay, but that seems like what is happening. NT

[IndianaGreen]

31. K&R . That 300-page AT&T phone bill that woman got for her IPhone did it for me.

Now, let's find someone that can solve the IPhone battery problem where one does not have to send the IPhone back to the factory.

[wordpix]

32. now that I know about this lock, I won't buy an iPhone---take THAT, Apple!

I used to like the products and company but they've bcome too monopolisticly corporate.

[KeepItReal]

34. Locking favors AT&T's wanting exclusivity. Apple would want to sell as many as possible

Apple would sell iPhones on T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, Helio or Virgin Mobile if they could simultaneously.

Apple's job is to move iPhones. ATT's job is to get new customers and keep the ones they have.

BTW, who would get a new iPhone on ATT/Cingular if they had the chance to get one on their current carrier?

[truthisfreedom]

35. Ermm... One thing you may wish to consider. When Apple entered into negotiations with ATT

to figure out how to offer a lot of service for this remarkable phone/internet browsing machine with a lot of room for expansion in the future, they had a lot of back-and-forth discussions about what features to disable (chat, for example, because it would have crushed the edge network), and how many freebies people would get (Apple scored big on this one.) My iPhone replaced my razr, also on ATT, and my monthly bill actually went down or stayed the same from month-to-month, while my services are now absolutely incredible. I get a lot of free text messages (they were all charged before), and unlimited internet service which is, considering the network, close to miraculous in its connectivity and speed.

None of this would have been possible without the contract that ensured Apple wouldn't spread the iPhone around to other providers for 5 years.

I, for one, believe this is one of the more amazing arrangements I've seen between corporations to provide extra benefits to the end user.

[MADem]

39. I find it to stink of antitrustiness, myself! If the deal were so plainly great, there wouldn't

be any desire to move to other companies--the AT and T hookup would be the one everyone gravitated to anyway, because it was naturally the best. The bullying aspect of "It comes with this, and NOTHING else" is what's stupid. They should've given everyone three or six months free with AT and T and factored it into the purchase price, letting everyone get a nice taste, rather than disabling the ability of people to make a choice. The market reviews, if the AT and T service were so great, would have won the day.

And those 300 page phone bills? What lunacy is that? Was that an error, or do you get a bill with every "Hi howR U, LOL?" that you've texted, written out in all their insipid glory?

[MADem]

37. Well, they may be selling LEGAL LOCKPICKS any day now!!!!

See here:

Uniquephones, a Belfast-based cell phone service that boasts having unlocked phones on more than 600 mobile networks, had been planning to sell its software download online beginning this weekend. The fix is supposed to be as simple as plugging an iPhone into your USB port, downloading a software patch and clicking an "unlock" icon.

But Uniquephones's John McLaughlin says that he received a phone call at 3 a.m. Saturday from AT&T lawyers ordering that his company halt their plans. "They said if we did release this, that they would be within their rights to go after us," he says. "These are bullying tactics." He says Uniquephones will delay the release of the software download until he is positive they are on sound legal footing. AT&T declined to comment on Uniquephones or Hotz (who tells NEWSWEEK he had not been contacted by either Apple or AT&T as of Saturday).

Another outfit called iPhoneSimFree has also announced it will begin selling a software-based unlock to iPhone users this week. They did not respond to repeated interview requests from NEWSWEEK, but the popular technology blog Engaget confirmed that iPhoneSimFree's unlock works.

Is all this legal? Technically, yes. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it a crime to circumvent digital encryption--primarily an anti-piracy measure--with certain exceptions. One of those exceptions is for unlocking a cell phone. "It's an exception that's never been tested" in the courts, says Timothy Wu, a former telecomm lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School. "The copyright office wanted to say, 'This is for protecting DVDs, not to protect the cell phone industry.'"

Hotz, the whiz-kid behind the hardware hack, isn't concerned about his legal standing. He's not offering his services up for sale and the steps required to unlock an iPhone are sufficiently complicated. ("Who's going to use this?" he asks. "Very few people.") In fact, the only people who have called him so far are journalists, "a venture capitalist and a guy who works at Qualcomm offering me a summer internship," he says. But Hotz, who ships off to New York for his freshman year at the Rochester Institute of Technology this very afternoon, has other ideas. "I want to intern at Google next summer if I can. I've got a friend there and he's, like, 'Dude, they have a cafeteria 24/7. You can go in there and eat whatever you want. You can go to sleep, hack for a couple of hours and go eat some more'." Who said kids today don't dream big?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20439105/site/newsweek/

[tammywammy]

33. It's been relisted on ebay now

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230164884672

at $540 with 0 bids. I saw yesterday where someone screwed it up and it was at $99,999,999 :eyes:

[Duer 157099]

40. Now it's been taken off ebay -- he traded it

THE iPhone HAS BEEN TRADED

Terry Daidone, the founder of Certicell contacted me this morning, and offered to make a trade for the iPhone. I traded it for a sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones. I will be sending the iPhones, unlocked if they wish, to jpetrie(the first donater), gray(the reversing genius), and iProof(who is truly amazing at finding stuff online) Thanks a lot everyone. I leave for college tomorrow, and this has been a great end to a great summer. If I ever do anything more with the iPhone, it'll definitely be posted here. Also I contacted iphonesimfree and offered to verify on this blog their claims of a software unlock. No response yet...

http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com/

[tammywammy]

41. Sounds like he got a great deal

And less hassle than bidding on ebay, since the first time was messed up.

Good for him!