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Jailtime For Jailbreaking

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-thats-not-fun dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Remember how the Librarian of Congress announced that jailbreaking your phone was legal and not a violation of the DMCA? Yeah, well, tell that to Mohamad Majed, who has already spent over a year in jail and has now been pressured into pleading guilty to criminal DMCA violations for jailbreaking phones for use on other carriers."

3 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. Jailbreaking is not unlocking by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Informative

    The convictions were all from people breaking phones (as in hundreds or thousands of phones) to use on different carriers. The iPhone jailbreaking (which the story summary was meant to make you think of even though no iPhones were involved in this story) does not unlock the phone for use by other carriers.

    You may proceed jailbreaking as normally despite this FUD, just as many millions have already done...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  2. Re:Not really jailbreaking by Zed+Pobre · · Score: 5, Informative

    Quoting the text of the relevant exemption, with some added emphasis:

    (3) Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network.

    The man doing the unlocking wasn't using any of those phones to connect to a network. He was unlocking phones for resale overseas, making a profit by violating the terms of a subsidy. The exemption doesn't cover this, and you probably don't want it to cover this, assuming you still want to be able to buy phones at less than full market price. If you find a story where someone is convicted under the DMCA for unlocking his or her own phone for personal use, then there's a story. This isn't one.

  3. Re:Well naturally... by puto · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, and you can read the original filing. The guy and his buddy bought thousands of stolen phones, and playstations, and laptops, that he knew were stolen from an undercover FBI guy over the course of few years. He and his pals are no angels. No heros. But then again, they could have posted a link to it. http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1136.pdf

    --
    The Revolution Will Not Be Televised