Would You Like that iPhone Locked or Unlocked?: Reconciling Apple's Anticircumvention Measures with the DMCA

Abstract

When Apple's iPhone first hit the stores it was an epochal media event.2 Apple, long a leader in high-end computers and personal electronics, was poised to make its entry into ahighly-competitive market with a new mobile phone that promised groundbreaking technological capabilities in a sleek, ergonomic package. Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, extolled the iPhone's virtues to an eager press, and, shortly thereafter, Apple's stock jumped dramatically.3 Apple's loyal devotees lined up in anticipation days before the phone's June 29, 2007 release.4 It took Apple a mere seventy-four days to sell one million handsets.5 But some time after the fanfarehad settled down, public perception of the iPhone shifted. As consumers began to use the iPhone, the once-beloved phone began to acquire its share of discontents. Consumers expressed frustration in response to 300-page phone bills,6 expensive roaming charges,7 and, perhaps most vocally, to the technological methods Apple used to police its exclusive agreement with AT&T. 8