IPhone Contract Is Long and Legally Murky
At 17,000 words, it's the longest, most legally complex phone agreement ever.
July 20, 2007 — -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs proudly proclaimed the iPhone one of the most intuitive devices ever made. Not so for the iPhone's terms-of-service contract, which at 17,000 words is one of the longest and most complex ever to accompany a wireless gadget, legal experts say.
No one reads such things, least of all early adopters eager to own the summer's most-lusted-after product. So Wired News has done the hard work for you. We read it not just once but several times, with the help of a few good lawyers.
"I think there's no chance whatsoever that a layperson would understand it and I doubt they could get through it. I think most lawyers wouldn't understand it either," says Fred von Lohmann, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation who in a past career crafted licensing service agreements for a living.
An Apple representative declined to answer questions or comment.
The good news: The document consists mostly of boilerplate that is standard in most wireless contracts, and contains no real surprises. Its unusual length stems from the fact that the iPhone is bundled with several services, each of which has its own licensing agreement.
The bad news: The iPhone contract may not be the last word in overly long and complex user agreements. Terms-of-service contracts promise to grow even more dense, legal experts warn, making them even more difficult to understand than they already are.
That's a problem, because even standard contracts now contain some legally questionable provisions that you should be aware of regardless of the phone and plan you use -- for example, regarding reverse engineering and arbitration.
The iPhone contract is unusual in bundling many separate agreements into a single contract. It comes in six parts, including agreements regarding AT&T's phone service, the iPhone software, the iTunes software, the use of Google Maps and of YouTube in addition to a user's consent that an e-mail from Apple "will satisfy any legal communication requirements." (Click to read the AT&T agreement, plus the other five agreements.)
