EFF petitions to extend legal iPhone jailbreaking

In 2010, the Copyright Office said jailbreaking a handset did not violate the DMCA and the jailbreak community breathed a sigh of relief. What many people didn't realize was that the exemption covering jailbreaking will expire later this year. When it expires, companies can go after jailbreak developers like the iPhone Dev Team using the DMCA. They could face jail time and monetary penalties for their involvement in creating jailbreaking tools. Needless to say, this would put a halt to most, if not all, jailbreaking.

To prevent this from happening, the EFF created a webpage that tells you how to contact the Copyright Office and ask them to extend this exemption. The advocacy group also wants to extend this protection to tablets and video game consoles. They have instructions on where to send your comments and a guideline about what to say in your communication with the government agency. Comments are due by February 10 at 5 PM Eastern Time. If this is a cause you believe in, head over the EFF and take some time to help keep jailbreaking alive.

[Electronista]

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Source: https://www.eff.org/pages/jailbreaking-not-crime-tell-copyri…

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iPhone Jailbreak/pwnage iPad

In 2010, the Copyright Office said jailbreaking a handset did not violate the DMCA and the jailbreak community breathed a sigh of relief....

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Zulqurnain Ehsan

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January 28 2012 at 6:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Gus

I have a new iPhone 4s. I'm not a jailbreaker. I'm afraid of messing up the phone, but I believe it should be legal for those that want to. I own it. If I buy a new Ford Mustang, I can put bigger wheels, or louder mufflers or put a new stereo in it or even paint a stripe on it. why? because it's mine. i own it and Ford can't stop me. The aftermarket for car parts and upgrades is a billion dollar business. When I buy a new computer I can add any software I want. it's mine. When I buy a house I can put any furniture in it or paint the walls any color I want.
I actually think it should be illegal for Apple to continually upgrade the software patching the holes that the jailbreakers use. They are purposely and methodically preventing jailbreakers from doing what they want to a device they own. It's not your phone anymore Apple! Yes, some people will use jailbreaking for piracy. "Some" people do illegal things all the time. I might drive that Mustang over the speed limit, I might use that computer for viewing illegal material (not me specifially but you get it), People in my house might take illegal drugs or other illegal activities. So I just hope that jailbreaking is deemed to be permanantly legal and that they go after Apple for trying to stop it from happening. My fear is that their $40 billion in cash can pay off a lot of people.

January 27 2012 at 9:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Gus's comment

Rdnymllnsktr

I think that it should be legal for jail breaking. In fact, I was agreeing with your whole statement up until you stuck you foot in your mouth with saying that it should be illegal for Apple to upgrade the software to break jailbreaks. This shows either your ignorance, or your lack of thought.

You realize the way the iOS is jailbroken is through exploits. In other words, parts of the code that can be "hacked" into. For Apple to not fix these would be quite irresponsible. It leaves the door open for those who might want to be malicious to be able to break into your phone and do damage.

January 28 2012 at 4:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

DanRanda

If jailbreaking was deemed legal in the U.S. then would someone please explain to me why Time Warner Cable is allowed to block jailbreak users from using their FREE app which also requires a legitimate TWC username and password?

I understand that TWC is afraid that some jailbreak users will find a hack that will allow the TWC app to run outside of the paramters that TWC expects of it's users (like only watching TV when you are at home on your own TWC internet connection), but that hasn't happened yet.

To date, TWC released a free app and TWC subscribers with iDevices used it according to their terms. Then some of us legally jailbroke our devices to do things like use SBSettings and Activator to enable simpler use of our device (nothing illegal so far right?). Then sometime later TWC issued an update tot heir app that checks if you're jailbroken and then blocks their app from running. To me, it seems that if jailbreaking is legal, then it ought to be illegal for companies to build their apps so that it wont run on a jailbroken device.

January 27 2012 at 4:22 PM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to DanRanda's comment

Jimmy

Not to worry there is a tweak for that.

Look up in Cydia: F*ck time warner cable. install and you can now use TWC App while JAILBROKEN...!

There is also the more PC version Fake Time Warner cable. they both work. But I prefer the later for obvious reasons...!

January 28 2012 at 2:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

MPercentTwentyM

If jailbreaking is to be made illegal on the sole grounds that it potentially enables piracy, then the internet should be made illegal by that same standard.

Oh, wait. They're actually working on that.

January 27 2012 at 12:43 PM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to MPercentTwentyM's comment

DanRanda

And I am SOOOOOO against PIPA and SOPA, for the record.
But by those same standards, guns and knives ought to be illegal too. After all, almost all armed robberies are done w a gun or other lethal device. And stealing is pretty much the analog equivalent to digital piracy (you are stealing something you haven't paid for).

I'm sick and tired of big media corporations funneling money into our legal and political systems via lobbyists for the sole purpose of protecting their property, without ANY regard for those that COMPLETELY WANT TO PLAY BY THE RULES AND NOT STEAL ANYTHING THEY HAVEN'T PAID FOR BUT JUST WANT A FEW SYSTEM TWEAKS TO MAKE THEIR COMPUTING EXPERIENCE UNIQUE AND PERSONALIZED. Since when did that mean you were thief who was guaranteed to steal someone's property?!

January 27 2012 at 4:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris Marshall

Well, if it is illegal to sell mod chips for the Xbox 360, PS3 and cartridges for the DS line of consoles it should be equally illegal to jailbreak iOS devices. The same arguments exist for mod chips and carts as they also allow you to run homebrew software whilst enabling piracy, just like Jailbreaking.

January 27 2012 at 10:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to Chris Marshall's comment