"DVD Jon," the person behind the hacks related to the DVD's CSS sprotecion scheme, claims that he has cracked Apple's iPhone activation, allowing iPhone buyers to activate and use the new handset without having to commit to an AT&T wireless contract.

Jon Johansen (DVD Jon)announced the crack in his blog, in a post entitled "iPhone Independence Day".

"I've found a way to activate a brand new unactivated iPhone without giving any of your money or personal information to AT&T or NSA. The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and WiFi work," Johansen writes in his blog.

However, the hacked iPhones will not be able to make calls. It can be used just as a multimedia and internet communicator device.

Apple's iPhone has received massive acceptance since its launch last week. Normaly, the device needs to be activated using Apple's iTunes software on a Mac or PC. Once the device is activated, users can synch it just like they do an iPod to access music, videos and other files on their computer. AT&T Inc, the sole service provider for the iPhone, has recently resolved some reported problems related to the activation process early this week.

Another report indicates that a legal iPhone activation can be applied in more than one device, by just using an activated SIM card to the nonactivated iPhone. This seems to be a way to get two phones activated for the price of one, but this second Jon said he is uncertain as to whether the first device would lose its activation.