Is activation lock supposed to expire?

[zorinlynx]

At our club we've had someone's lost iPhone in our lost+found for over a year now; it had been remote-wiped but activation locked so nobody could use it.

Yesterday much to our surprise we turned on the phone and were able to activate it! It's an iPhone 4 with a cracked screen, so I'm not too surprised the owner didn't come for it.

Does this mean activation lock eventually expires?

 

[hockeyman94]

At our club we've had someone's lost iPhone in our lost+found for over a year now; it had been remote-wiped but activation locked so nobody could use it.

Yesterday much to our surprise we turned on the phone and were able to activate it! It's an iPhone 4 with a cracked screen, so I'm not too surprised the owner didn't come for it.

Does this mean activation lock eventually expires?

No it does not expire the person who previously owned it released it from their iCloud.

 

[Applejuiced]

No it does not expire the person who previously owned it released it from their iCloud.

Exactly.
It never expires.
The original owner removed it from his icloud account and moved on.