Re: Apple Says Jailbreaking iPhones Is Illegal, Dammit

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: February 13, 2009 2:25:36 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Apple Says Jailbreaking iPhones Is Illegal, Dammit


Dave,

It's interesting to contrast Apple's iPhone attitude with that of
Google toward Android on the G1.  While Google (and T-Mobile) may not
be slaphappy enthusiastic about people jailbreaking G1s, there's been
no obvious evidence of any crackdown, other than to close security
holes in the course of upgrades.  But even more telling is that,
essentially for the price of a non-contract G1, you can directly buy
from Google the development edition ADP1.  This is the G1 hardware
with a slightly different Android build, plus unlocked bootloader
(which means you load whatever systems you wish) and unlocked SIM
capability.  Oh yes, there's an artsy graphic on the back cover of the
ADP1.  This is the phone that Google handed out to their employees
recently.

Android itself is open source (a few specific standard G1 applications
are closed source) -- this means that you can damn well put pretty
much any system code you want on an ADP1.  And since it's easy to
install the ADP1 bootloader (and other even more flexible bootloaders)
on a rooted ("jailbreak") G1, the distinction between the G1 and ADP1
can vanish completely.  All of the tools you need to build the Android
system, and both build and distribute Android apps, are available for
free.  I set them up initially in ten minutes.

Combine this all with Apple's "anal personality" control over iPhone
applications, vs. Google's "we're not application cops" attitude (yes,
the latter means that users need to take more responsibility), and
the contrast in apparent world view between Apple and Google in the
mobile space becomes even more stark.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com

- - -

On 02/13 13:13, David Farber wrote:
> http://i.gizmodo.com/5153101/apple-says-jailbreaking-iphones-is-illegal-dammit
>
> Apple Says Jailbreaking iPhones Is Illegal, Dammit
> By matt buchanan, 11:50 AM on Fri Feb 13 2009, 7,716 views
> For the first time ever, Apple has said publicly that jailbreaking
> iPhones is illegal. In comments filed with the US copyright office,
> Apple says that jailbreaking is copyright infringement and a violation
> of the DMCA.
>
> Every three years, the US Copyright Office has a rulemaking session  
> for
> the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, where exemption requests can be
> filed. For the 2009 session, the Electronic Frontier Foundation  
> filed an
> exemption request for jailbreaking iPhones for the purposes of
> interoperability with independent software—i.e., apps not in the App
> Store.
>
> Apple filed these comments (warning, PDF) in opposition, which is the
> first time it's explicitly said that jailbreaking itself is illegal
> ('cause copyright infringement is, well, not legal). It gets pretty
> nasty trashtalking the EFF in parts, and pretty masturbatory talking
> about how amazing the iPhone is in others (to show how it doesn't need
> to be opened to foster innovation). But the bottom line, according to
> Apple, is that the act of jailbreaking itself constitutes copyright
> infringement because it "involves infringing uses of the bootloader  
> and
> OS, the copyrighted works that are protected by the TPMs being
> circumvented."
>
> The EFF's counter-argument is that "courts have long recognized that
> copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for
> purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created
> software." Apple says, whatever, it's not fair use, you suck.
>
> We'll let the lawyers figure it out, but as a betting man, my  
> money's on
> the Fruit. [EFF]
>
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