iPhone owners demand to see Apple source code

From InfoWorld: iPhone owners charging Apple and AT&T with breaking antitrust laws asked a federal judge this week to force Apple to hand over the iPhone source code, court documents show.

The lawsuit, which was filed in October 2007, accuses Apple and AT&T of violating antitrust laws, including the Sherman Act, by agreeing to a multi-year deal that locks U.S. iPhone owners into using the mobile carrier.

On Wednesday, the plaintiffs asked U.S. District Court Judge James Ware to compel Apple to produce the source code for the iPhone 1.1.1 software, an update that Apple issued in September 2007. The update crippled iPhones that had been unlocked, or "jailbroken," so that they could be used with mobile providers other than AT&T. The iPhone 1.1.1 "bricked" those first-generation iPhones that had been hacked, rendering them useless and wiping all personal data from the device.

Several days before iPhone 1.1.1 was released, Apple threatened to take action against users who had hacked their handsets, saying that doing so would "violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty." Prior to that, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had said it was his company's job to stymie attempts to jailbreak the iPhone. "It's a cat and mouse game," Jobs said at the time. "People will try to break in, and it's our job to stop them breaking in."

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