No jail for the jailbreakers
Having declared last week that it was not illegal to jailbreak iPhones the U.S. government effectively gave consumers the right to fiddle with their proprietary software, allowing them access to other providers or to use apps and music from sources other than Apple’s own iTunes Store. This all became possible thanks to the exemptions made to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA.)
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF,) a selfstyled civil liberties group defending consumers’ digital rights, more than a million iPhone owners are said to have jailbroken their handsets in the past few months. The EFF hails the DMCA exemptions as a landmark victory and a good percentage of iPhone users might agree with them.
Apple on the other hand has warned that although jailbreaking may not be frowned upon by the law of the land, it won’t take the matter so lightly. Not only will jailbreaking void the warranty, but there is a risk of bricking the handset, effectively turning it into an expensive door stop. However, according to a journalist friend of mine it can be easily restored to a non jailbroken state.
If you’re after my personal opinion, I’m torn. On the one hand, I agree that Apple should be able to protect their IP with some legal recourse, however, emotionally I’m with the EFF (who remind me a bit of the Wolverines from mediocre 80s action flick Red Dawn) who believe a handset shouldn’t be locked down once you’ve purchased it. This battle will continue to rage. Choose your side carefully, maybe grow a mullet, wear khaki, buy an AK.
Let me know what you think about jailbreaking; a digital taboo, or your revolutionary right?
mmmmm the 80s
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August 3rd, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Personally i feel that once you have purchased a product it is yours. Therefore whether the vending company likes it or not they should have NO say in what you do with said product thereafter. If you want to use an iphone for a doorstop your choice, if you want to Jailbreak your iphone also your choice. In fact by Jailbreaking an Iphone you are not actually changing the use of the item and therefore apple have no cause for complaint. The same goes for the sony psp. Sony only started making games downloadable AFTER people had worked out how to do it and shared it with other users, whom Sony tried to ban. Sad but true. Apple will probably benefit more from this as they open there product up for manipulation by millions of talented computer enthusiasts world wide.
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:14 pm
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