[pchelpers] Re: News:New Jersey teen who hacked IPhone trades gadget for a new car

John Durham <john.modec@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
    By: The Canadian Press
at 6:46 on August 28, 2007, EST.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The teenage hacker who managed to unlock the IPhone 
so that it can be used with cellular networks other than AT&T will be 
trading his reworked gadget for a new car.

George Hotz, of Glen Rock, New Jersey, said he had reached the deal with 
CertiCell, a Kentucky-based mobile phone repair company.

Hotz posted on his blog that he traded his modified IPhone for "a sweet 
Nissan 350Z and three 8GB IPhones."

"This has been a great end to a great summer," Hotz wrote.

More here:
http://cp.horizon-news.com/lethherald/article_story.php?cpid=753389&ctgry=z
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  Beware the legal implications. 
  the Associated Press ran this article:
  The Apple iPhone.
  
 
  By PETER SVENSSON | AP Technology Writer   
   5:33 PM EDT, August 29, 2007   NEW YORk
         

  Hackers have figured out how to unleash Apple's iPhone from AT&T's cellular 
network, but people hoping to make money from the procedure could face legal 
problems. 

At least one of the companies hoping to make money by unlocking iPhones said it 
is hesitating after calls from lawyers representing the phone company. 

Unlocking the phone for one's own use, for instance to place calls with a 
different carrier, appears to be legal. But if it's done for financial gain, 
the legality is less certain. 


    

  "Whether people can make profits from software that hacks the iPhone is going 
to depend very much on exactly what was done to develop that software and what 
does that software do," said Bart Showalter, head of the Intellectual Property 
practice group at law firm Baker Botts in Dallas. 

John McLaughlin of Uniquephones.com, an outfit based in Northern Ireland, said 
in a phone interview Wednesday that its unlocking software for iPhones is 
ready, but the company is holding off while it gets legal advice. 

He said it had been contacted by lawyers from O'Melveny & Myers LLP, an 
international law firm representing AT&T, who told him the software contained 
material copyrighted by Apple Inc. 

"They don't have it, so therefore they can't actually threaten us," McLaughlin 
said. "It was 'friendly advice.'" 

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said the company had no comment on the case. A call 
to Apple was not immediately returned. 

Uniquephones.com had planned to release the software via iphoneunlocking.com. 
The price for people on its mailing list, which contained just less than half a 
million addresses, would be $25 per iPhone, McLaughlin said. 

"From their e-mail addresses, they're from everywhere in the world," McLaughlin 
said. "Everybody is just waiting for it." 

The iPhone is sold only in the U.S., and only for use on the AT&T network, but 
it is compatible with cell phone technology used around the world, which means 
an unlocked phone can use an overseas account and number. In the U.S., T-Mobile 
is the only other major carrier compatible with the iPhone; Sprint and Verizon 
Wireless use different network technologies. 

Most U.S. phones are locked to their carrier when sold, since the carrier 
subsidizes the cost of the phone. The iPhone, however, is apparently not 
subsidized by AT&T. 

Some carriers provide the unlock codes on request when a subscriber's contract 
expires, but that doesn't apply to the iPhone, and in any case, the phone only 
went on sale two months ago, while the minimum contract length is two years. 

Another Web site, iphonesimfree.com, has said it plans to release iPhone 
unlocking software in a few days. 

The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress last year issued a statement 
that unlocking cell phones was not a violation of copyright under the Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act. That law has been used to go after software that 
copies DVDs. 

But Tracfone Wireless LLC, a Florida-based company selling phones that use 
prepaid plans, won an injunction in February against a couple who bought its 
phones in large numbers and resold them unlocked. 

The U.S. District Court in Orlando found that the DMCA exception did not apply 
to those unlocking a phone with the intent to resell it. 

Bruce Sunstein, a patent lawyer with Boston-based Bromberg & Sunstein, said 
unlocking software could well stand up to a legal challenge. 

"They're aiding and abetting something that's completely legal ... the 
exemption the Copyright Office created does not state that it applies only to 
the user," Sunstein said. 

George Hotz, a 17-year-old in New Jersey who managed to unlock his iPhone last 
week, using both software and hardware modifications, tried to sell it on eBay 
but ended the auction after apparently fake bids send the price to $100 
million. 

Instead, Hotz traded the unlocked phone for "a sweet Nissan 350Z" and three 
iPhones, according to his blog. 

Hotz made the deal with Terry Daidone, co-founder of CertiCell, a cell phone 
repair company in Louisville, Ky. 

In a statement on his Web site, Daidone said he was "keenly interested" in 
having the teenager help his engineers modify phones, but does not have any 
plans to commercialize Hotz's unlocking procedure. 

* __ 

On the Net: 

http://www.apple.com/iphone
  more articles in /technology/wire
  Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press


Cheers,
Ellen M.
       
---------------------------------
Luggage? GPS? Comic books? 
Check out fitting  gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search.



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