Last week’s announcement of teenage hacker George Hotz’s successful iPhone unlocking has generated a deluge of programmers promising easy unlocking software. Most notably iPhoneSIMfree had promised iPhone users a simple unlocking tool that would take only “2 minutes” to render the gadget usable on non-AT&T networks. iPhoneSIMfree even went so far as to demonstrate their hack for CNN.
After weeks of promising the hack will be on sale “next week” or “in 48 to 72 hours” iPhoneSIMfree has started selling bulk orders of the unlock. The bulk orders run from 50 licenses for $36 each to 5,000 licenses for $25 each. The hackers at iPhoneSIMfree are most likely trying to cover their collective butts due to the questionable legality of the product they’re selling.
So instead of just putting their butts on the line they ask you to become sort-of partners in their reselling scheme. This is mainly because, according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, unlocking a phone is protected, but distributors of unlocking software are not. iPhoneSIMfree switching from retailer to wholesaler also opens up opportunities for folks to sell unlocked iPhones for insane prices.
Many iPhone users are rightfully sceptical of iPhoneSIMfree’s unlocking software. They offer no guarantee that the software will work once new firmware updates are launched, and there’s the questionable legality of the whole thing. While most folks agree that Apple probably doesn’t mind the hackers, AT&T is all up in arms about it. So if you’re chomping at the bit to get your iPhone unlocked, I’d wait until the guys at the iPhone Dev Wiki or some other hackers make a free, open-source version.
For more information check out the relevant articles at iTWire and ars technica. There’s also a heady discussion going on in the comments section over at Engadget’s article.