The attorney who won the exemption to the DMCA for her clients to unlock a mobile phone has weighed in on the iPhone unlocking issue. The exemption doesn’t offer blanket protection for mobile phone unlocking and doesn’t apply to those offering unlocking services to others, according to Jennifer Granick on Wednesday.

Writing for Wired, Ms. Granick won the exemption in November that allows customers to circumvent digital locks on phones.

However, Ms. Granick pointed out that the exemption is weak. "...the exemption does not offer blanket protection for phone unlocking, though the practice might be legal for other reasons. The problem is that the exemption protects unlockers, but it doesn’t apply to those entities that distribute unlocking tools or provide unlocking services to others. Even when the Copyright Office grants exemptions for non-infringing or fair uses, customers usually still suffer because in most cases, including unlocking, only the small number of persons who have the technical know-how to circumvent can do so....

"Individuals or companies that might help them are still prohibited from doing so. Thus, in many ways, the rule-making is an empty promise: giving a legal right to circumvent, without protecting access to the tools necessary to make that right a reality," she wrote.

Another issue is the Terms of Service (TOS) from AT&T. AT&T has a legal argument that the phone may not be operated on another network by the TOS -- assuming the customer has activated their iPhone.

Ms. Granick expressed the hope that this furor will change the future of mobile phones: "Perhaps the iPhone will awaken a consumer revolution, though not necessarily the one envisioned by Apple or AT&T."