Does anybody have the naivety to believe that Apple didn’t
know from the first sold piece that the iPhone will become a perfect target for
hackers around the world? The exclusivity that Apple offered AT&T arouse from
the beginning a wave of comments, and most of the weren’t too flattering,
referring to the company’s mobile phone services, so the attempts to unblock
the phone were a certitude from the beginning in June 29.
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…
