iPhone hacked article

I'm heading out for a few days of golfing before the clerkship starts, but this article caught my eye on my way out and I had to put my two cents in before everyone else. Apparently some teenage computer wizard in New Jersey "unlocked" his iPhone so it can work on any network: NJ Teen Unlocks iPhone from AT&T Network.

I appreciate the big deal of trying to keep technology within a corporation and copyright and all that jazz, but it's this line from the article that kills me:

"The hack, which Hotz posted Thursday to his blog, is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software. It takes him 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."

Well, Hotzshot, if you don't want people making money off this (other than, of course, yourself, who probably secretly hopes for a magical computer job one day), why would you post a step by step instruction sheet online for the world to see? Obviously someone will profit from your work, and it won't be you. This type of thing only perpetuates unaccounted for problems and higher cell phone bills for everybody and more work for lawyers. So it's sort of a lose-win situation. I can only hope that somehow this kid's actions violates some sort of patent that teaches him a valuable lesson regarding giving stuff away for free: You get what you pay for.

And how about that Michael Vick? I sort of feel sorry for those who wasted their pick (although who would schedule their draft that early to begin with?).

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