Jailbreaking iPhone Now Legal

whisper_jeff writes "The US government on Monday announced new rules making it officially legal for iPhone owners to 'jailbreak' their device and run unauthorized third-party applications, as well as the ability to unlock any cell phone for use on multiple carriers." The EFF has further details on this and some of the other legal protections granted in the new rules.

Comments

Press release from EFF

[Anonymous Coward]

Press release from EFF:

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/07/26

Re:Press release from EFF

[paazin]

Note, this isn't the only thing that came up. The AP mentions several more:


- allow owners of used cell phones to break access controls on their phones in order to switch wireless carriers.

- allow people to break technical protections on video games to investigate or correct security flaws.

- allow college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break copy-protection measures on DVDs so they can embed clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos.

- allow computer owners to bypass the need for external security devices called dongles if the dongle no longer works and cannot be replaced.

All of which sound like pretty much what I've heard people complaining about for years now. Good to see the valid exemptions to the law are finally being updated to be somewhat logical.

Re:Is this subject to a whim?

[yar]

The Librarian of Congress is appointed by the President. The Register of Copyrights is appoints by the Librarian.

There is an extensive rule-making procedure for this process (Section 1201 rulemaking- see the featured link at copyright.gov). Unfortunately, those asking for the exemptions generally bear the burden of proof, and have to ask for the exemptions every three years. It is difficult to plan based on these exemptions.

Re:Yeah and how about rooting Android?

[tknd]

First off, rooting android is not the same as jailbreaking iphone. If your android comes with "enable unknown sources" which most devices do (except some ATT versions) then you can get most of the functionality you need through 3rd party apps or apk files. For example if I develop a new app, I don't need to go through the provisioning BS that apple makes you go through. I just get a device, drop the apk on it, and test it. I don't need to have the phone hooked up to a computer or anything.

Most of the people rooting android are interested in a fully customized/3rd party rom, not just root privileges. That's way different than Apple because most of the people jailbreaking iphones are interested in apps that aren't blessed by Apple.

Re:hooray

[Anonymous Coward]

Tying a hardware warranty to software is and has always been illegal.

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act says that a manufacturer cannot void a warranty because of an aftermarket replacement part unless they can prove that the part caused the failure (e.g. those early unlocks that scrambled the baseband's IMEI info).

In short, Apple cannot legally void the warranty for a mere jailbreak, but could void the warranty for an unlock that goes wrong and bricks the phone by damaging the baseband or boot loader.

Re:Now they can make it illegal

[Kirijini]

it looks like the Obama Administration finally got something right in regards to copyright and fair use/first sale.

I'm an Obama supporter, but Obama had nothing to do with this. The Copyright Office is a part of the Library of Congress, which is a creature of Congress. The new exemptions were recommended by the Registrar of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters, who has been in office since 1994. Her boss, the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, has been in office since 1987.