iPhone Owners Demand To See Apple Source Code 298
CWmike writes "iPhone owners charging Apple and AT&T with breaking antitrust laws asked a federal judge this week to force Apple to hand over the iPhone source code, court documents show. The lawsuit, which was filed in October 2007, accuses Apple and AT&T of violating antitrust laws, including the Sherman Act, by agreeing to a multi-year deal that locks US iPhone owners into using the mobile carrier. On Wednesday, the plaintiffs asked US District Court Judge James Ware to compel Apple to produce the source code for the iPhone 1.1.1 software, an update that Apple issued in September 2007. The update crippled iPhones that had been unlocked, or 'jailbroken,' so that they could be used with mobile providers other than AT&T. The iPhone 1.1.1 'bricked' those first-generation iPhones that had been hacked, rendering them useless and wiping all personal data from the device. The plaintiffs say that the source code is necessary to determine whether all iPhones were given the same 1.1.1 update, and whether it was designed to brick all or just some hacked iPhones."
Same concept between the modded xboxes and this (Score:1, Interesting)
I wonder which side of the battle the general comments are going to take on this story vs the xbox banning story.
On one side (Xbox): Kick rocks, you modded, MS gimped your console.
I suspect for this article: Apple gimped your phone, die die die.
(P.S.: Posting this from my new iMac).
Re:I've always wondered (Score:3, Interesting)
Hahahahaha! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How is my Sprint HTC Touch Pro... (Score:3, Interesting)
In response/support to what I was saying, a true competitive market is as this:
Some companies make phones
Some companies offer service
That's it. The europeans do it well. I loved it when I lived there. My phone had a swiss number, a german number, and an italian number. All depending on which SIM card I put in it. I paid for minutes and texts as I used them.
Why oh why is the american business model becoming "do as much anti-trust as you can, abuse the consumer, and pay penalties if you're caught".
WHY? Because we're not actually pursuing the blatant infringes on competition and the penalties are LOWER than the benefits reaped.
Everyone is doing it. Microsoft, IBM, big oil, big telco. Anyone on the planet that has used AT&T knows from their customer service that they don't care about you at all and don't need to because they are part of gigantic oligopolies.
Re:Wasted effort in the wrong place. (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes. This is not really Apple's fault. Jobs famously called a meeting of wireless execs who were trying to "sell" him, "orifices." The way that he got things pushed through with the iPhone was by offering an exclusive. If it became illegal to have exclusives, this would be a boon to Apple, because then they could get out from under AT & T and sell to anyone on any carrier. It would be a boon to every handset manufacturer.
The issue here is not Apple or the iPhone or even AT & T; it's the US's ridiculous lack of regulations on this market (same thing in Japan, where I live, though). The carriers need to get the hell out of the handset market and just do their damned orifice jobs. They want to be retailers, but they are very obviously utility companies. This and net neutrality are basically the same thing: Utility companies aspiring to be retailers or content companies. They need to be smacked down as the knuckle-draggers they are.