Just a heads up for hope... I had the Verizon Police come after me with the whole "You did hoodrat things with unapproved software" when messing with the bootloader.
Phone bricked? Well, not if you know where to look. I was able to get a new bootloader (stock) onto it. Soooo... if you can get a bootloader that was locked out back in action... there's no reason we can't flash on a bootloader that spoofs security... or bypasses it entirely.
Working in the industry I'm in (web hosting) we deal with custom kernels and all kinds of security issues--- there's always a way around it with root access. If you have Odin, it can be done.
It's going to probably take some time... but remember this is basically a little linux computer. You CAN work around most everything.
Keep hope. As I said... I had Verizon drop the hammer on me and brick my phone. Well, an hour later I was texting my buddies telling them hope is not lost. The simple fact of if you are locked out by the "Verizon Police" and can get things back to normal, there's no reason at all you can't get custom kernels/bootloaders/etc running and spoof it.
I posted in another thread about it, and would be happy to share how to get it back to factory settings if you DO screw up the bootloader.
KEEP HOPE is tattooed across my knuckles. (and the lower ones say rm -rf * if anyone gets a kick out of that). Just a waiting game now... I'm sure one of my guys at work can take a look at it as well. If anyone wants to donate a S3 (lend, not GIVE) to someone who develops kernels and custom hardware for one of the leading hosting companies in the industry... I'm happy to get some outside eyes on it.