Apple sued for ‘bricking’ the iPhone
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Oct 8, 2007 at 5:25pm
Another day, another lawsuit. California resident Timothy Smith filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple on Oct. 4, alleging that the iPhone maker violated the state’s antitrust law, reports InformationWeek.
The suit was filed on behalf of Smith by Damian Fernandez, the attorney who’s been seeking plaintiffs for a class-action case against Apple over iPhone “bricking” (disabling of an iPhone with a recent software update that “killed” any of the devices with third party software that “unlocked” an iPhone).
Specifically, Timothy P. Smith v. Apple Inc. charges the iPhone maker with violating the Cartwright Act, because, according to the court papers, “Apple prohibits iPhone consumers from using and purchasing a cell phone service other than through AT&T.” The suit also says that cell phone unlocking is completely legal, citing traditional copyright law as well as the more recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
In addition, Smith’s suit claims that “as a result of Apple’s unlawful and anti-competitive conduct, consumers continue to pay artificially inflated prices for the iPhone and AT&T’s cell phone service.”
Submissions are being taken for the “Macsimum Macworld San Francisco 2008 Coupon Book. For details email Dennis at daseller@earthlink.net
Leave a comment ⇒
Please post the article topic & comment in our forums. No registration required.
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
