Did I mention unlocking an iPhone? Don't. You're on Neowin.


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The iPhone has created the most buzz, hype, trolling and diehard fanatics since its release last June. It has also been witness to some brilliant and sometimes diabolical coding to unlock it, jailbreak it and activate it.

Yet a technology site such as this refuses to acknowledge this and discuss it in its forums.

Can someone please explain to me why I need to go to another tech news site if I wish to discuss such issues?

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well there has been jailbreak threads already, but i guess it's as simple as removing the simlock from a branded phone, you are not allowed to (officially).

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A pm won't create a debate and this thread may only end up locked. I'm just curious as to why this site won't even mention the words of jailbreaking, unlocking and activating. It's an instant thread deletion or locked status.

The site may have legal issues to follow but then again so do tuaw, engadget and others. So why should there be no discussion here?

edit

Thankyou Hurmoth :) I see your point here about not linking.

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I hope I don't get warned for this but I believe Neowin sometimes has over-moderation. The fact I'm worried about being warned is the sad part.

A few weeks ago in a Cloverfield movie thread, I had just mentioned watching the ending clip of the movie on my computer and was warned.

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My difficulty is trying to start a topic about current iPhone issues without mentioning certain applications. It's all very coded and nudge nudge wink wink.

If I were to get a warning for mentioning terms then someone really has got nothing better to do. ;)

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well, with the new court rulling that should hopefully take affect soon, its going to make it where all cellphones will have to be usuable on any service.So unlocking a phone will not be anything illegal or wrong in a bit, meaning that the rules for the postings about them will have to change if im correct? if the government says that all phones should have open access to any service, then links and topics about unlocking them shouldnt be frowned upon. but not until the rulling is passed.

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A few weeks ago in a Cloverfield movie thread, I had just mentioned watching the ending clip of the movie on my computer and was warned.
Without getting to far off topic, that is clearly against our rules though. We don't want to put ourselves in a position where we could be in legal trouble. It might seem like we're going a little overboard sometimes, but considering that the MPAA and the RIAA have no problem suing dead people, it is safe to say that they'd have no problem suing us and even if we knew we could win, there's still legal fees to have to contend with and the possibility of our ISP shutting us down for a period of time (which I believe has happened before when Neowin was just a baby).

And it isn't out of the question that if we allow download links here, Apple could sue us. No one is saying that they will, but why take a chance, right? Which is why discussion about it is great, but linking to jailbreak software isn't :)

well, with the new court rulling that should hopefully take affect soon, its going to make it where all cellphones will have to be usuable on any service.So unlocking a phone will not be anything illegal or wrong in a bit, meaning that the rules for the postings about them will have to change if im correct? if the government says that all phones should have open access to any service, then links and topics about unlocking them shouldnt be frowned upon. but not until the rulling is passed.

What court ruling would that be? Haven't heard anything about it, so I'm curious.

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I haven't heard anything about the court ruling either. Can you explain Shakey? This is really important for me as I live in a country where the iPhone is not being sold.

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I haven't heard anything about the court ruling either. Can you explain Shakey? This is really important for me as I live in a country where the iPhone is not being sold.

To sum it up, to the best of my knowledge, it basically says that companies wouldn't be able to sell phones that are locked into a specific carrier, so Apple would have to sell the iPhone unlocked and then you'd choose whatever provider you want to use.

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yeah while the court & Apple's terms say its illegal our hands are tied.

If the legal situation was to change we would look to modify our rules to reflect that :)

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Its not a court ruling. It is laws that they are trying to pass.

In the US the law will never pass. The companies selling the phones, as well as the wireless providers, will just push enough money into congress through lobbyists so the law is defeated. And also, there are plenty of other devices that are locked into certain providers to make this situation any different from hundreds of others. Think cable boxes, for one.

As far as AU goes, I don't know how good the likelyhood of it passing there is, but I do know that Apple is more likely to stop selling the iphone there AT ALL rather than sell an unlocked version.

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Indeed. A high degree of suckery. :p

Even my installing of deCSS in Linux to view DVDs is questionable, legally. If you go by the MPAA claims (although they lost every case they brought up against DVD Jon).

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And also, there are plenty of other devices that are locked into certain providers to make this situation any different from hundreds of others. Think cable boxes, for one.

In New Zealand the Government is looking into whether it should mandate that you can receive any subscribers programming on any subscribers STB (Either Cable or Satellite) - with the right smartcard, of course. It'll be interesting to see where this ends up.

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