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Apple Claims That Jail-Breaking Is Illegal

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the never-underestimate-the-power-of-greed dept.

rmav writes "Apple has finally made a statement about jail-breaking. They try to sell the idea that it is a copyright infringement and DMCA violation. This, despite the fact (as the linked article states) that courts have ruled that copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software. I cannot help but think that the recent flood of iPhone cracked applications is responsible for this. Before that, Apple was quietly ignoring the jailbreak scene. Now, I suppose that in the future we may only install extra applications on our iPhones as ad hoc installs using the SDK, and if we want turn-by-turn directions, tethering, and the like, we have to compile these apps by ourselves? Maybe we should go and download the cydia source code and see what we can do with it."

4 of 610 comments (clear)

  1. microsoft did it in the past... by itsme1234 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It wasn't such a long time ago when Microsoft was claiming that basically you can't donate (or use!!!) a PC without the original OS.
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/18/1623240

    I guess everybody on /. knows how freakinglishly locked are the iPhones even compared to Windows Mobile devices so this doesn't come as a surprise at all.

  2. Re:As someone who's developed apps for the iPhone. by geekoid · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    you assume people only develop for money.

    What are you, an ignoramus?..oh,, wait~

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  3. Apple should have the right to protect their IP by joeyblades · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    > courts have ruled that copying software while reverse engineering is a fair
    > use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently
    > created software.

    If we were talking about patents instead of copyrights, there would be no question. Is it OK for me to copy the iPhone hardware and make a few changes to make it work in a different environment? Why should Apple's IP in their boot loader be treated any different? They paid a bunch of money to a bunch of engineers to invent that software and for someone to simply take it for their own purposes is... well... stealing!

    If you don't like Apple's rules - don't buy Apple. Anarchy is not the answer.

  4. Re:Someone call the wambulance by TechnicalPenguin · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Lloyd Dobler: I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything ... as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought ... or processed ... or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.

    Me: Good luck with that.