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Apple Bans Jailbreakers From the App Store
Hugh Pickens writes "Adam Mills writes in the Examiner that Apple has been cutting off access to the iTunes App Store for iPhone hackers and jailbreakers. Sherif Hashim, the iPhone developer who successfully hacked the iPhone OS 3.1.3 and unlocked the 05.12.01 baseband for iPhone 3GS and 3G devices, discovered he'd been cut off and twittered: '"Your Apple ID was banned for security reasons," that's what i get when i try to go to the app store, they must be really angry.' Another hacker, iH8Sn0w, who is behind the Sn0wbreeze tool, confirms that his account has also been deactivated even though iH8sn0w's exploit had only been revealed to Dev Team, the group responsible for the PwnageTool. 'It is kind of surprising that two people associated with jailbreaking have had this happen to them so soon after one another, but it's too early to say if this is a campaign that Apple is starting up,' writes Mills."
We'll need a bit more evidence than 2 cases.
Anyway, that would be an effective way to encourage people to try out alternate ways to acquire the same software...
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
The vast majority of jail-breakers don't pirate apps. Well that or I hang out with the wrong people -- jailbreaking is extremely common, but I haven't seen an iPhone with a pirated app yet.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
where do you come up with this? Jail breaking exists because there is a demand for features that apple refuses to provide. It's no different than rooting a google phone, and for the same reasons.
Easy examples: Flash, multitasking, tethering.
I'm an apple hater, someone who doesn't even have an iphone, and even I know this. Basically, there wouldn't be jailbreaking if apple was actually giving their customers what they want.
That is one of the huge drawbacks of such a closed ecosystem.
However, the original post is less agitate than the summary:
Is Apple starting to ban those associated with jailbreaking?
The answer is probably not. [...] however it definitely would put an iron grip on those who pirate free software. The details of what is going on remain extremely murky but maybe they are taking down some of the bigger players.
"Hannibal's plans never work right. They just work." Amy/A-Team
Jail-breaking facilitates piracy
So how is banning jailbreakers from the app store going to help with that? It seems like it would just force the jailbreakers to use pirated apps exclusively.
And assuming Apple limits the bans to the authors of jailbreaking tools rather than end users, it won't do much to deter the development of such tools. You don't need access to the app store to write the tools, and I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the authors of the tools have no problem pirating apps themselves.
I think jailbreaking isn't a great idea, and Apple is within its rights to deter it through security improvements and the like, but this just seems counterproductive.
have a price tag with it. in this case, price is freedom.
apple users should face the distasteful truth. the company which is providing them 'stylish' and 'hip' products that 'just work', is just wanting to keep them as cash cows without any consumer choice.
Read radical news here
This obviously sucks for the people involved, but I can't help but feel this is actually superb news. Maybe this will finaly drive home that the ability to jailbreak your devices does not excuse manufactures for making locked-down closed devices. Far too often I've heard arguments of the form: "[DEVICES] are not locked down, because you can jailbreak them if you want to."
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Ever since you started making money hands over fist with iTunes...
Ummm... Apple has never started making money hand over fist with iTunes. Income from iTunes and the iPhone app store together are a negligible portion of Apple's revenue. Seriously, they both barely make more than the operational cost.
I got the exact same message a couple of weeks ago when I tried to log in to ADC. Here's a screenshot: http://tomasf.se/other/appleid.jpg
I'm not a jailbreaker, though, so either Apple made a mistake in my case, or this has nothing to do with jailbreaking. Now to figure out how to resolve this... :-/
I'll add my experience:
I've jailbroken my phone, and I have not placed a single app that was available on the appstore on my phone without purchasing it from the appstore.
I jailbroke my phone so I could get into the file system of the phone because I absolutely hate using iTunes to get files on and off my device. I also liked to be able to multitask and not have my preferred music player stop working because I wanted to look up something on the internet.
In fact, if I couldn't jailbreak my phone I wouldn't have purchased it in the first place since in its default state, it's a pretty crappy device for my needs.
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And this punishment just happens to only be effective against people who don't pirate.
Keep digging that hole for yourself, Apple. It'll save Android from having to do the heavy lifting.
Hey, at least Microsoft didn't do this. Then it'd be downright evil.
This is why I do not buy anything from Apple. I will not be forced into a little bubble like all of you cattle out there. I have missed nothing as the result. By the way, my phone dose multitasking and I am not banned from anything (except Apple).
Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
It can happen. I'm sure a lot of XBox 360 users were thinking the same thing before Microsoft did their mass bannings from XBL.
Of course it can happen. Google could also start arming its employees with Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapons and send them out in the streets causing mischief and mayhem but I don't think too many people are losing sleep over that possibility! ;-)
The point is that only fools panic over what COULD remotely possibly maybe happen. Keep an eye on the issue, yes. Respond if it gets out of hand, yes! But don't make the assumption that two incidents equals a mass ban. That's just jumping the gun and overreacting.
Sapere aude!
Here's a possible other side: Someone learned their login credentials, or at least the name, and tried too many times to log on as them. Poof, account locked for security reasons.
I'm usually not the first to come to Apple's defense (personally, I try hard to avoid their products exactly for the same reason I avoid Sony, I'm not a big fan of vendor lock-in), but I think we should first of all wait 'til it's verified that this is due to their jailbreaking.
Then there's still enough time to give them the verbal smackdown they (then) deserve.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Maybe it was the "cattle" comment. Sounds like a flame to me.
"The problem is the very real and growing problem of pirated paid apps on jailbroken phones."
This doesn't fix that problem, unfortunately.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Here's a rather silly question - why did you buy it in the first place?
In its default state, I wouldn't have, and I didn't. I waited until it was possible to hack the device, then I purchased it once I saw that it wasn't a flakey hack and it was established that I wouldn't brick the device by breathing on it the wrong way. At that point, when I considered the total package (jailbroken iphone), it WAS what I wanted in a device since the alternatives (Verizon, Tmobile, Sprint) were not actually viable alternatives.
So in short, the unjailbroken iPhone was not something I wanted. The Jailbroken iPhone was.
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If Apple starts banning en-masse people who have jailbroken their iPhones then we can break out the torches and pitchforks. Until then it's a company saying "no more soup for you" to a couple of hackers who are looking to exploit the company's secure system.
So you're willing to protest when you get cut off but not when the guys whose software freed your phone get cut off? That's mighty neighborly of you.
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
You didn't read the article you cited, did you? It made the exact opposite point of what you argue - that iTunes is immensely profitable for the firm. Read the link you posted.
Actually I did read it as you should know if you even read my comments telling you which portions you needed to pay attention to. Please go reread what I wrote. The article mentions the long standing position of Apple and belief of analysts that Apple makes little or nothing on iTunes. Then, it proposes Apple could make a billion dollars a year, which is to say, still less than all the other divisions of Apple make. It bases that upon the theory that Apple's margins could be slightly better than for other products they sell, which the author admits in the update was incorrect. He further admits he failed to take into account the cost of running the servers and the bandwidth costs. his end conclusion is, "But I still think that with the scale it has, I still think that iTunes is a better business than Mr. Jobs makes it out to be." in reference to Jobs saying it doesn't make much money. Seriously, reading comprehension goes beyond just scanning the title, slacker.
Fine.
I'm having a problem understanding what you mean by "holding a company's feet to the fire when they step over the line" in the context of this article which deals with 2 hackers being cut off because of jailbreaking, when you justify Apple by stating that "even then" they have "every right" to do so.
I understand the point of each sentence separated, but in the same paragraph I do not.
I've tried to follow along in this thread but I have missed something or the conversation gradually changed as it went on.
Are you implying that Apple is protecting the IP rights of software developers by blocking access to the only store to buy the applications that those software developers make? If so, can you explain that logic?
If I was selling applications there and Apple really was blocking jailbroken phones as this article speculates, using just your numbers, that is 4 million less people that have NO chance of ever paying for my software even if they wanted to.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Which explains the constant cellular outages caused by thousands of rogue apps on Android phones. That's pure fear-mongering by Apple and the carriers to keep their lock-in.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
0.043% > 0%, assuming that the first number is even close to accurate. And no I don't condone piracy but this is just silly. There are very large numbers of users which means an Apple decision to prevent jailbroken devices from purchasing legitimate apps affects a large segment of the iPod Touch / iPhone community. This move will encourage piracy, not discourage it, because once "banned" the user has little choice but to pirate the apps they want.
You seem to be having a normal ego threat response. I pointed out that your comment about Apple making lots of money on iTunes and your implication that they have changed business practices to cash in on that instead of on the businesses where they are making most of their money, was misinformed. Even the pie in the sky estimates of Apples iTunes revenue make it about 4% of their income, while more enlightened estimates put it probably below 1%. I cited an article from one of those pie in the sky people, who realized his mistake when corrected, in the hopes that you'd see not only the logic, but where people that make that assumption went wrong.
Instead of rationally revising your opinion with the input of this new data (as the author largely did), you got emotional and defensive. As if being wrong makes you less of a person, you instead chose to irrationally defend that incorrect opinion, in effect being a less intelligent person. I'm not pointing this out because I want to make you feel bad or look bad. I don't know you and don't really care that much. I just hope you can impartially consider your decision making process and truly consider if you are being reasoned and logical in future.