The iOS 7 Jailbreak Fiasco

Bismillah writes "Evad3rs' new iOS 7 jailbreak featured a Chinese app store that sold pirated software, and which was pulled from Evasi0n7 soon after launch. Latest rumors say that the exploit used for Evasi0n7 was stolen by a certain person, offered up for sale, so the Evad3rs did a deal with TaiG instead. Jay 'Saurik' Freeman of Cydia meanwhile isn't happy about the whole thing, saying he was given no time to test Evasi0n7."

Comments

Jailbreakingg

[TyFoN]

It's funny. In any other operating evironment you would call these root exploits.
However in the Apple camp it's simply jailbreaking. One does not dear imply that the iphone is insecure :)

Re:Jailbreakingg

[Kell Bengal]

It's more a case of regaining entry after being locked out of your own house, rather than someone else breaking in.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[Anonymous Coward]

It's more a case of regaining entry after being locked out of your own house, rather than someone else breaking in.

Except that the burglar could use the same route.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[Anonymous Coward]

...and then having the power to fill your house to the brim with free clones of paid stuff, should you so choose.

Jailbreaking to work around OS/carrier lameness, sure. Trying to justify the pirated/infringing apps you warezed and put on your device for free, essentially ripping off developers for their 99c, supremely lame.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh stop being so melodramatic - the product comes the way it was designed. If you bought it, you should have bought it in the knowledge that what it had to offer was fine for you and not with the intent to whine about any possibility that the company - understandably - has denied you form the start.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[JaredOfEuropa]

ripping off developers for their 99c, supremely lame

I never really understood this. You go and get a really expensive phone, then begrudge someone their 99 cents. Or seriously spend more than a few seconds thought on whether or not to buy that "really expensive" $1.99 app. And subsequently get suckered into dropping tens of dollars on in-app purchases in in some freemium game. People are weird...

Re:Jailbreakingg

[Noughmad]

At big part of it is the feeling that you're special, and that you "beat the system".

Re:Jailbreakingg

[93 Escort Wagon]

You're right - you really don't get it.

Most of us who jailbreak aren't interested in stealing apps. Heck, by default those repositories aren't even available to a jailbreaker. Instead, it's about adding functionality. Frankly, look at some of the new iOS 7 features... We jail breakers had those in iOS 5 and 6.

Prior to iOS 7, iPhone apps running on a non-retina iPad were displayed in low res, even though there was a high res "retina" version of the app's images readily available. The fix? A jailbreak App called RetinaPad (which, incidentally, I paid for). A free app, SBSettings, added some quick access toggles to the notification pull down - another useful feature that iOS 7 borrowed.

Want to ssh into your iPhone? Gotta jailbreak it first. Want a decent wifi scanner for troubleshooting? Again, you need to jailbreak. Want to be able to use gestures to replace the home button? Again, you need to jailbreak.

There are lots of reasons for jail breaking that have absolutely nothing to do with theft. They're probably of interest only to a minority of iOS users, but they exist. As iOS matures, those reasons gradually dwindle... but I can't see them ever going away completely.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[Nerdfest]

The problem is that you're rewarding a company (known for making extremely high profit on their devices) for locking you out of your hardware. Their attitude towards letting you install the software you want is not going to improve in the future with people doing that.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[Anonymous Coward]

Complain as much as you want: I can copy bits from you, and it won't take anything away from you. I shall continue, and it's highly unlikely you'll be able to stop me. DItto for the other million+ people.

I'm sure you'll feel the same when someone gets their paws on your Bitcoin wallet. It is just a string of 0s and 1s.

BTW, why don't you spend your time creating something useful. Anything at all. And then let everyone come along and copy it for free. We're waiting. And don't give me the "What about Linux?" shit. You're a taker, not a giver. The people who have donated their time and efforts to Linux, some of whom have dedicated their lives to it, are givers and you have not earned the right to compare yourselves to them.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[noh8rz10]

why don't you just not buy the phone? if you don't want to reward the company that makes the phone? or steal the phone? pro tip: if you paid for the phone you've already rewarded them.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[Nyder]

It's more a case of regaining entry after being locked out of your own house, rather than someone else breaking in.

Except that the burglar could use the same route.

Or the police, or the NSA or the FBI, etc....

Re:Jailbreakingg

[Nyder]

You're a taker, not a giver.

+1. some people create things, so they have empathy with other people who create things. others are just takers and add no value to society, so they cannot comprehend how their actions hut those that create. like arguing with a rock. good news is, they rooted their own phones and gave them to chinese hackers, in exchange for free angry birds (yes, I bet they download cracked versions of free apps too lol).

Takers & givers. Pitchers & Catchers, Tops & Bottoms. Good & Evil. Left & right. 1's & 0's.

You do realize that most of life is a binary system and you can't generally have one without the other?

In other words, some people give, some people take. It's part of life. If you feel superior because you are one and not the other, then you are missing out on how life really works.

Does that person downloading a pirated app really hurt the developer? No it doesn't. That person most likely doesn't pay for software, so the developer would never get money from him. But oddly enough, there is enough people who have no problem paying for stuff, and that is why developers & producers make money because there is enough people buying to turn profit. It has always been this way. Thinking your superior because you pay for stuff is deluding yourself. Thinking your smarter because you don't pay for stuff is also deluding yourself. We are just all playing our parts in life.

Good software/music/movies sell and make money. Crappy software/music/movies don't sell and they blame it on people pirating the stuff then the fact they made some crappy software/music/movies.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[znrt]

Apart from the revenue I should have got.

should you? oh, because you said so? you have no right to get a revenue from your work, you only have the right to try. if it doesn't work, don't blame it on others.

Neither of which makes it right.

nor wrong.

Just because you can copy someone's digital work and they still have it does not morally justify your actions.

if you find it's inmoral, don't do it. what i find morally injustifiable is you wanting to impose your personal morals on others. keep them for yourself.

If you want a copy of a digital work, then you should reward the creator for creating it

no, see above.

further, I didn't ask the creator for anything.

even further, the creator didn't "reward" the zillions of people whose effort he himself used in order to produce his digital work.

the fact that they don't lose their bits is irrelevant.

it isn't. this is a necessary condition for "theft" in any legal code. you IP zealots want to equate copying with theft and that's why you come up with this "loss of rightful revenue" crap, which isn't rightful at all.

Otherwise, why should anyone bother to create any digital work?

exactly. why should they? to cry for some revenue they think themselves entitled to? funny.

fact is many of them do it just because they want. others because they actually do get a revenue. so what?

If everyone had your attitude, no-one would create any digital products.

it's not an attitude, it's elementary common sense and it is pervasive. and still ... people keeps creating.

As it is, the people that don't pay are leaching off those that do.

besides ignoring (or twisting) reality you are intending to insult a lot of people with this. i would say it is inmoral, if it weren't just lame.

Re:Jailbreakingg

[nurb432]

And then you have people that create things, give them away and expect the same in return.

Confusing summary

[wonkey_monkey]

Evad3rs' new iOS 7 jailbreak featured a Chinese app store that sold pirated software, and which was pulled from Evasi0n7 soon after launch.

Evasi0n7 is the name of the jailbreak?

Latest rumors say that the exploit used for Evasi0n7 was stolen by a certain person, offered up for sale, so the Evad3rs did a deal with TaiG instead.

TaiG is the name of the Chinese app store? Who's the "certain person," and why does them stealing it lead ("...so...") to the jail break creators doing this deal with TaiG?

Jay 'Saurik' Freeman of Cydia meanwhile isn't happy about the whole thing, saying he was given no time to test Evasi0n7."

What's Cydia, and why is it important that they have time to test the jailbreak?

Re:Jailbreak vs Rooting

[GrammarPoliceChief]

Apple treats you as a criminal? I'm sorry but you are simply trolling. iOS is designed for the masses. They do not want problematic user problems, they do not want many ways to do the same task, they should not have to care about the OS. I'm pretty happy with Apples way that they created their ecosystem, it is fair for both the consumer and the developer. Android is difficult if not impossible to root on many devices. Some even come with a fuse on the main SOC package that detects if the phone has been rooted.

$650 and you still don't own it

[lophophore]

Apple makes nice stuff, but I won't touch any more of it. $650 for an unlocked iPhone 5s and you cannot do what you want with it without a "jailbreak". Contrast with a modern Nexus phone that you can install your own software (e.g. Cyanogenmod) on with a PC and a USB cable.

The same is true for Apple's tablets -- in fact, it is even worse, because "jailbreaking" your iPad is a federal crime under the DMCA.

Apple makes nice stuff, no doubt, but if you cannot change what's inside, you really don't own it.

Politics

[wvmarle]

As if reporting about US politics isn't enough, Slashdot is now apparently even reporting political games played within the blackhat/exploit scene. Honestly I have no idea what they're talking about in that summary.

Oh well, at least there is some kind of a link to something technical. And Apple, of course.

And I'll just go back to trying to unlock that uncooperative HTC Evo 3D...

Re:I'm not Trolling I'm Rolling

[jo_ham]

Apple treats you as a criminal? I'm sorry but you are simply trolling.

http://www.legalzoom.com/intellectual-property-rights/copyrights/apple-responds-eff-jailbreaking FRom the article because I am lazy.

"Apple has responded to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)'s request to the US Copyright Office to declare hacking a smartphone legal; not surprisingly, Apple believes jailbreaking is copyright violation and, therefore, illegal."

Someone needs there mod points removed :)

Just so we're clear here, you want to declare taking advantage of a root exploit "legal", but only if it's on an Apple phone.

What about a Linux server? If it's legal to to exploit a root vulnerability on iOS then surely it is on Linux, or Windows, or OS X too, right?

re: pariahs?

[King_TJ]

How is this Apple's fault though? Skype isn't owned by Apple. Square payment systems don't have ties back to Apple.

If all Apple does is provide an API that can be queried to see if the device is jailbroken, I'd say they're pretty much a neutral party.

People should get angry with the developers who opt to use it to prevent you from using their software, if they have a problem with it.