I think there is a clarification here. You OWN hardware, and with that hardware you are legally entitled to do whatever you want. That can not even be questioned, and has absolutely nothing to do with DMCA because that does not apply to hardware.
DMCA does, however, cover intellectual property. This means anything that can be covered by a copyright, be that software, music or other content. But, even here there are gray areas. You can, for example, reverse engineer software for academic purposes. You can take sections of software code, written material (i.e. book) and clips of songs and movies to use in illustrating works of your own, like a book, song or movie review, or tutorial on programming. You can not reproduce the entire works for this purpose, however. This is called fair use.
You can also change the media that content is on, and make a backup copy. The key here is that you still have possession of the original media, and your license to use the content is still in place. This is also fair use.
You can not, however, use the intellectual property in it's entirety to make money either by selling copied, or selling admission to a public performance.
But, hardware is completely different.
There are certain governmental regulations that could get you in hot water with modifying SOME hardware. For example, if you purchase a firearm, and attempt to modify it in a manner that would turn it into a "class 3" firearm, you need to have a special permit to do this, and then another one to have possession of said firearm. It's not technically illegal to own such things, just not permitted without the proper paperwork. I assure you that the iPhone does not fall into this category.
-jt2
. And Im sick of rehashing the same argument about the rights/legality issues surround the unlock.
