by , 3:45 PM EDT, October 8th, 2007

A California man has sued Apple, accusing the company of violating California antitrust law because iPhone customers are forced to use AT&T, and iPhones that have been modified to work on other networks have been bricked by Apple, according to Computerworld on Monday.

"Apple forced plaintiff and the class members to pay substantially more for the iPhone and cell phone service than they would have paid in a competitive marketplace either for the iPhone or for AT&T's cell phone service," the suit claimed.

The lawsuit also pointed to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that allows mobile phone owners to unlock their iPhones and that Apple violated consumers' rights by bricking some iPhones with the 1.1.1 update.

"Apple acted in defiance and without sufficient consideration of consumers' rights to unlock their iPhones because it knew that the probable result of its update would be to render unlocked iPhones inoperable," the lawsuit charged.

At a Website set up by Mr. Timothy Smith's attorneys, readers are advised that they might qualify for inclusion in the class-action lawsuit if they paid a termination fee to their previous service, if their iPhone has become disabled or if they had third party applications erased after the 1.1.1 update.