What seemed to be the threat of some script-kiddies became a reality a few days ago. The famous iPhone got “unstuck” from the AT&T network, and we are not talking about an isolated case or just one man. Until now there were at least two or three reported methods of hacking the iPhone, from which the most publicized belongs to Hotz.

The New Jersey teen George Hotz in collaboration with four online colleagues, reached his goal successfully through an array of procedures detailed on his blog.

The operation is fairly long, it involves some technical knowledge and it’s not reachable for a beginner. The highest risk is to definitely damage it during the “process”.

But for Hotz it was a good deal as the teenager he traded his second unlocked iPhone creation, the first is for his own use, to Terry Daidone, founder of CertiCell, in exchange for a Nissan 350Z sports car and three new 8 Gb iPhones for his team.

There is also a second unlocking solution provided by a so-called iPhoneSimFree group and is a software-only unlock which frees the iPhone to work with SIM cards from any service provider.

Also Belfast-based UniquePhones claimed it had cracked the code which locked iPhone into AT&T's network. In fact so far the company, which said it intends to publish its unlocking solution, was the only one threatened by AT&T’s lawyers. They said that unveiling the unlocking method constitute copyright infringement and illegal software dissemination.

Let’s not forget that one month after the official launch of the iPhone, U.S. security researchers claimed they have discovered how to hack into Apple Inc.'s new iPhone and steal personal information. Experts at Baltimore's Independent Security Evaluators, a computer protection consultancy, claim to have found a way to gain complete access to the phone through a flaw in the way iPhone connects to the Internet. That’s proves that after all nothing is un-hackable. Few days later Apple issued a firmware update that solved the issue, but it seems that didn’t stop the hackers to unlock the device.

In the middle of this media frenzy about unlocked iPhone, Apple continues to be silent, almost like the company’s department of communication subtly decided to take an unlimited vacation.

But why should Apple panic? Theoretically they could have only one reason: if there is a specification in the exclusivity contract with AT&T, that they will be compensated in case the phone will be hacked. AT&T deserves its faith if they weren’t inspired enough to specify penalty clauses in case the phone is hacked. With a hacked iPhone AT&T is out of the equation.
In fact, there is little known about the term conditions between Apple and AT&T. According to a report published last month by Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst one of his reports, AT&T pays a fee to Apple for each iPhone. "While we do not know the exact details of the agreement, we conservatively estimate that AT&T gives Apple $3 per month (over the life of the 24 month contract) for every iPhone customer already with AT&T and $11 per month for every new subscriber," lead analyst Gene Munster.
Apple is, known for the aggressiveness with which it protects its products, and throughout history there were a lot of times when they proved that they know when and how fast to send their lawyers to put an end to awkward situations.

Until now the only legal reaction was from AT&T’s lawyers, but it wasn’t very convincing and it wasn’t very clear.

Indeed the legal frame is ambiguous and apparently there is no U.S. law against unlocking cell phones because in 2006 the Library of Congress specifically excluded cell-phone unlocking from coverage under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

"The underlying activity sought to be performed by the owner of the handset is to allow the handset to do what it was manufactured to do—lawfully connect to any carrier," writes the government in explanation. "This is a non-infringing activity by the user... The purpose of the software lock appears to be limited to restricting the owner’s use of the mobile handset to support a business model, rather than to protect access to a copyrighted work itself."

Should we believe that AT&T and Apple are paying an army of lawyers, so that they can just shrug and say that the legislation is unclear? Or they didn’t manage to find something concrete to accuse those who filled the internet of hacking methods. It is obvious that all of this could end if Apple will release an update that will lock the phone back. But do they have the interest of doing it? By the looks of it, the most plausible scenario is the one where Apple is not interested at all in the whole story. Apple holds the iPhone, and it is obvious that the phone will sell with or without a service provider; better yet it could sell even better than before.

Could have Apple reserved AT&T the butler part, just like in a play where his purpose is to introduce in the scene the main character which will change the whole plot?

Or maybe just in this very minute there are negotiations between Apple, AT&T and the hackers. Or maybe Apple is frenetically working to issue a new firmware…

Surely the next days will bring us an answer, but whatever the ending will be, we already have a certain winner: Apple.

Unblocked or not, iPhone won a lot of publicity, and in the end that is what matters for Apple. As for AT&T, let’s just hope they knew how to keep their backs. If not…