Command Line

Professor Felten doesn’t speak to the actual legalities involved. Once all of the complaints are distributed and the recipients have decided on what course of action to take. According to his post, one group is keeping a low profile, another is delaying a commercial offering having already been served. I would very much like to see these complaints, if possible, published somewhere for comment by experts of all opinions.

The analogy that Professor Felten puts forward, though, on how these hacks should be treated legally is compelling. It appeals to common sense. I am not sure I see number portability as a strong sign of consumer protecting regulation, however. That was late in coming and there are still many onerous barriers to switching services, specifically contractual lock in and early termination fees. I am sure some carriers do not require contracts but if memory serves when that is usually the case going without a contract means little to no subsidization of the devices you purchase from the carrier.

A cheap price on the latest, feature-ful phone if only you’ll sign away your rights through a document you are unlikely to read or pay many times that for the privilege of not being locked in.

I also agree that the advantage goes to the hackers. I am less optimistic on the time scale before AT&T gives up. The iPhone has not been out but a few months, they no doubt expect to be able to squeeze many quarters worth of profit from that exclusivity, yet. What happens to their quarterly projections and their stock performance if they throw the towel in too earlier, regardless of the practical realities of removing the metaphorical food dye from the swimming pool?

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