DVD Jon takes first steps in cracking the iPhone

Jon Lech Johansen, also known as "DVD Jon" and as the software engineer who released software code that cracked the DVD content-scrambling system in 2002, apparently has found details about iPhone and iTunes activation data and as well as a first key to open up the iPhone.

Readers have notified us that Johansen has published the information on his blog, where he claims to have discovered a way to activate the iPhone without going through the regular activation process in iTunes.

Johansen’s "Phone Activation Server v1.0" software so far only enables iPod and Wi-Fi capabilities on the iPhone, not the actual phone. While the opened feature set is limited - and reduces the iPhone to an expensive Wi-Fi iPod - it is more than what has been available before : The iPhone is designed to only provide access to emergency phone calls, if a user decides not to activate the phone.

Johansen did not say if iPhone users can still go through the regular AT&T activation process once the phone has been activated through his Phone Activation Server.