Smith's complaint acknowledges that Apple warned that the iPhone update could result in unlocked iPhones becoming "permanently inoperable," but it alleges that the company acted "in defiance and without sufficient consideration of consumers' rights" because the company "took no steps to issue an update with unlocked firmware or otherwise issue its update to prevent damage to unlocked iPhones."
Unlocking is considered a protected practice under exemptions made for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), protecting users from civil or criminal penalties from unlocking, but it does not provide protection against a company fighting against the unlocking in the way that Apple has done.
Source:
Yahoo (NewsFactor)