Working Assets, the alternative phone service for the left-of-heart, is issued a petition asking that Apple untether its phone from AT&T's wireless network, arguing that customers turned off by the telecom's alleged involvement in spying on Americans with warrants and its stance against net neutrality regulations have nowhere to turn to get themselves an iPhone.
Working Assets activism arm, Act for Change, correctly points out that a December copyright office ruling clarifies that it is legal for individuals to unlock their phones and take them to another network. But given that the SIM card for the GSM-using iPhone isn't accessible, good luck moving the phone to any other network.
The petition is almost quaint in its naiveté.
Very few people in this country actually change their buying behavior based on politics and Apple is notorious for being secretive, proprietary and closed. Remember that Apple has NEVER licensed its FairPlay DRM system to anything other than a crappy phone (Don't tell me you've forgotten about the FIRST iPhone, the ROKR, pictured at right).
Yes, you have the right to unlock an iPhone, and it'd be really great for gadget heads who also love freedom, but that don't mean Mr. Jobs is going to tear down the iPhone's walls any more than Gorbachev tore down the Berlin Wall. The people brought that wall down. And the people here aren't standing outside AT&T stores to tear out the iPhone's SIM chip, I promise you.
Via TechBlorge
