U.S. Congress Declares Jailbreaking Legal

[sims]

Apple Inc.'s control over its iPhone and other devices via its iTunes store was undercut Monday by a federal ruling legalizing jailbreaking, or altering the devices to install unapproved software, a practice used now by a small number of customers.

The Library of Congress, which helps oversee copyright law, removed a legal cloud over altering of iPhones, iPads and iPods, to install and run software not purchased from Apple.

Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at Electronic Freedom Foundation, the digital-rights organization that pushed for the change, said the ruling could open the door for third-party app stores. "Innovators now know that there will be customers for them," she says.

Apple has reviewed and maintained veto power over apps for the iPhone since it opened the device to outside developers in 2008. These apps can only be downloaded from Apple's App Store. Monday's ruling applies to other smartphone makers but only Apple now restricts what apps can run on its devices.

Mario Ciabarra, president of Rock Your Phone Inc., which sells apps for jailbroken iPhones, says close to $2 million worth of about apps for about four million iPhones have been downloaded from his store. He said the company felt that what it was doing was legal, but was not eager to argue that point in court. What this ruling does "is make it very clear that it is okay," he said.

Apple, which says it has sold about 50 million iPhones worldwide, has discouraged jailbreaking. A spokeswoman did not address the ruling directly, but explained the company's policy.

"Apple's goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone," she said, adding that "jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience" of the iPhone and that it "can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably," she said.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704700404575391570601360494.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

After hearing this news, I pretty much jailbroke my iPod Touch immediately. So, I think this is great, as it allows small developers to publish their apps on third-parties such as Cydia without having to go through Apple's strict regulations, and users will be able to download a wider variety of programs than what's available on the App Store.

 

[Bigboi]

Cool, pretty soon we'll be paying for Cydia.

 

[Fawfulfan]

That's awesome, but what about jailbreaking software that facilitates theft of songs and apps? Is it now legal to blatantly rip off Apple? This is more of a neutral question than a defense of Apple's previous right to restrict apps, but I must admit that that would be worrisome on some level.

 

[Blitzzo]

I told you guys. I told you that running your own software on the hardware of your choice was an essential software freedom.

This arguably makes the iPhone a lot less awful.

 

[Virt]

At first, I thought you meant that ACTUALLY Breaking someone out of Jail was legal now. Har har.

 

[Blitzzo]

Err, no. The term "jailbreaking" these days has pretty much always been synonymous with "Defy Steve Jobs' iron fist by allowing installation of third-party software you should be allowed to use in the first place."

That's awesome, but what about jailbreaking software that facilitates theft of songs and apps? Is it now legal to blatantly rip off Apple?

It was possible to steal songs before "jailbreaking" even existed. And about apps, just because some freedom allows people to commit evils, does not mean that everyone should be put in ball-and-chain and have their freedoms restricted. Basically, you'd be arguing that PC users should no longer be allowed to write and distribute their own software, perform internet searches, or various other activities involving the open market because there is a possibility that someone can break the law while doing those things. That's absurd.

 

[ForgiveThisNewb]

Awesome. Bypassing artificial restrictions in regards to allowing other software to run is now legal. But legalizing jailbreaking isn't all that was legalized:

EFF also won a groundbreaking new protection for video remix artists currently thriving on Internet sites like YouTube. The new rule holds that amateur creators do not violate the DMCA when they use short excerpts from DVDs in order to create new, noncommercial works for purposes of criticism or comment if they believe that circumvention is necessary to fulfill that purpose.

 

[Gemini Spark]

Jailbreaking phones just breaks them.

 

[akirahedgehog]

"jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience"<- Now that's hilarious!

 

[sims]

Jailbreaking phones just breaks them.

No, it doesn't actually. I'm not sure where you got that notion from.

 

[Fawfulfan]

It was possible to steal songs before "jailbreaking" even existed. And about apps, just because some freedom allows people to commit evils, does not mean that everyone should be put in ball-and-chain and have their freedoms restricted. Basically, you'd be arguing that PC users should no longer be allowed to write and distribute their own software, perform internet searches, or various other activities involving the open market because there is a possibility that someone can break the law while doing those things. That's absurd.

Did you read the last part of my post? As I said, I don't defend or support Apple's right to ban third-party apps, and I'm glad that they no longer have that authority. I was simply asking whether this would make such theft easier.

I guess I can answer my own question and say 'no'. Now that I think about it, jailbreaking was always possible even before it was legitimized, and the type of person who would steal apps or music wouldn't have thought twice about violating anti-jailbreaking regulations too.

 

[WedgeStratos]

Perfect! Now we just need to get game console jailbreaking legalized and we'll all be fine.

 

[Mystic]

It IS legal. It's just that it's also legal for the game console manufacturers to upgrade the firmware to block it or other similar things.

 

[Kilron]

Actually, it's not, according to the DMCA. You cannot install the HBC on a Wii without circumventing protection, which is only legal when you have no other way to access media. You also are running unauthorized code on the Wii's OS. So even non pirating apps are illegal. Don't expect this to change either, the main reason iPhones can be jailbroken is to run on other carriers (note the iPad was not mentioned), and things like region locking are one of the rights you have when you make a copyright.

 

[Blitzzo]

Don't expect this to change either, the main reason iPhones can be jailbroken is to run on other carriers (note the iPad was not mentioned), and things like region locking are one of the rights you have when you make a copyright.

Go back and reread the article. I've done a quick search around the web, and all signs point to jailbreaking the iPhone for the purpose of running software, not for changing carriers. Apple may claim that you are making "unauthorized changes", but that has no legal standing. And about copyright, the court decision basically said that jailbreaking was not a violation of copyright, since it actually made very microscopic changes to the firmware. Apple's main argument against jailbreaking was that it would "ruin their reputation", which is not covered under copyright law.

I think you are confusing product protection here. The portion of firmware that prevents execution of unauthorized applications does not deal with copyright nor the protection of that copyright. In fact, it actually has nothing to do with the firmware itself! These modifications do not alter the ability to run the iPhone firmware, because chances are, you bought the hardware, you already have the firmware. You don't need to jailbreak to use the firmware. However, the firmware is placing artificial restrictions on using other software on the device. It is not Apple's job to decide whether or not you're allowed to run "unapproved" software. You bought their product already, so you should be allowed to run whatever you want on it. This ruling is basically saying, yes, you can run whatever software you want, because it's outside of Apple's influence.

Bypassing protections so that you can run the firmware without purchasing the right to run it? Yes, Apple has control there. But what jailbreaking does is completely different. By jailbreaking, you are not inherently infringing on the copyright and product protection of the firmware. All you're doing is lifting artificial restrictions.

There's a difference between the two.