Cellphone manufacturers use locked software to stifle competition and restrict consumers:
- Apple uses software locks on the iPhone to censor ebooks and block mobile applications that would compete with Apple's own software.
- T-Mobile's software locks prevent owners from gaining root access to the Google Android G1 phone, needlessly limiting the phone's bluetooth and other capabilities.
- And virtually every mobile device sold today is locked to a single telecommunications carrier.
Hundreds of thousands of cellphone owners have modified their phones to connect to the network or run the software of their choosing, and many more would like to. But the Digital Millennium Copyright Act poses a legal threat to phone users, even though the law was supposed to protect copyright owners and distributors of digital music and movies. This threat of litigation has driven consumers underground, stifling innovation and competition.
In January 2009, 8,200 people signed EFF's letter to the Copyright Office seeking protection for these innovations. Keep an eye on EFF.org to find out what happens next. In the meantime, here are some places you can learn more:
- EFF's Deeplinks blog discusses how iTunes abuses the App Store.
- A 2007 Boston Globe article: Cellphone users try to wrest some of carriers' control
- MacWorld: The Best iPhone Apps Are Not in the App Store
- iPhoneHacks.com maintains a list of stories about iPhone Apps that have been rejected from the App Store.
- Tim Wu's 2005 paper Wireless Carterfone outlines many of the ways wireless carriers have abused software locks.
