Library of Congress Says iPhone Jailbreaking is Legal
This is a big leap for the smart-phone users' community, especially the Apple iPhones - where practices of Jail-breaking have been in existence since the birth of the first iPhone, albeit within a mysterious cloud of "whether or not this is legal." Users Jail-break their iPhones in hope of being able to access third-party applications - applications that have not been approved by Apple.
For a long time, Apple has been opposed to Jail-breaking on grounds of protecting their copyrights. As such, Apple has been at the other end of the stick against the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an organization that believes Jail-breaking should be allowed because the consumers should not be "locked" while using a smart-phone that they paid for and own. With that, the EFF has won a big battle for the Jail-breaking community on Monday.
From their Press Release, EFF's Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick said, "By granting all of EFF's applications, the Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress have taken three important steps today to mitigate some of the harms caused by the DMCA. We are thrilled to have helped free jailbreakers, unlockers and vidders from this law's overbroad reach."
These exemptions are made every three years to make sure that the DMCA does not wrongly outlaw legal, legitimate, and non-infringing use of copyrighted materials.
Nevertheless, Apple still has a clause under its warranty saying that any products modified beyond its intended original settings will be voided. Hence Jail-breakers may have won the battle on the legal battlefield - but Apple will still try its best to discourage the practice.
SOURCE:
Electronic Frontier Foundation, (2010, July 26). EFF Wins new Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers[Press Release]. Retrieved from http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/07/26.
SOURCE:
U.S. Copyright Office, (2010, July 26). Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works. Retrieved from http://www.copyright.gov/1201/
Published by iGuru
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