Hardware hacker's iPhone unlock may be illegal

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A teenage boy has successfully hacked Apple's iPhone smartphone, unlocking the device to allow its full use on networks other than the US AT&T service.

George Hotz, a 17-year-old boy from New Jersey claims he has unlocked the iPhone using a combination of hardware and software modifications, finding a way to get around the device's restrictions and allow it to be used not only on AT&T's network but also on T-Mobile's US network and overseas.

Holz published step-by-step directions on his blog at iphonejtag.blogspot.com, and also uploaded a video to social media site YouTube demonstrating the phone running on T-Mobile's US network. Another group, known as iPhoneSimFree.com, said on its site that it also had found a less-invasive software-only method for unlocking the phone.

AT&T has an exclusive two-year agreement to provide phone and data services for the iPhone in the US. Apple is in talks with carriers in several UK and European networks for similar exclusive deals.

Enabling the combination phone, media player and web browser to run on other networks - known as "unlocking" - has been a stated goal of many hackers since the iPhone hit the market in late June.

However, unlocking the phone by modifying Apple's protected software may be illegal, especially if the modified phone is resold, as has been the case with at least one phone so far. While some of the software used on the device is open source, much of it, including the code that governs the network locking, is not. Therefore, reselling an iPhone with modified software could be viewed as counterfeiting as well as breaching the terms of any subsidy deal.

Several other methods for unlocking the iPhone have emerged on the internet in the past few weeks, although they involve tinkering with the iPhone hardware or more complicated ways of bypassing the protections for AT&T's exclusivity.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel declined to comment on the reports of successful unlocks and an Apple spokesman could not be immediately reached. An email sent to iPhoneSIMfree.com was not immediately answered.

"Inside the US it's not going to be a huge deal, outside the US it's probably going to be a big deal until Apple gets agreements in place with partners there," said Jeremy Horwitz, editor-in-chief of iLounge.com, which tracks news of Apple products.

The hacker victory could also be fleeting since it may be possible for Apple to render the unlock process useless with an update to the iPhone software, Horwitz said.

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