Could You Go to Jail for Jailbreaking Your iPhone? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Maybe it is time TO GIVE UP on Apple  djf


http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/could-you-go-to-jail-for-jailbreaking-your-iphone/?pagemode=print


Could You Go to Jail for Jailbreaking Your iPhone?

By SAUL HANSELL
There is something deeply exasperating about the debate, spotlighted  
Thursday, about whether unlocking an iPhone violates Apple’s copyright  
on the cellphone’s software. There’s a real issue at stake, but it  
isn’t fundamentally about copyrights.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a filing with the Copyright  
Office, argues that the government should allow iPhone owners to  
circumvent technical barriers meant to keep them from changing the  
phone’s software, a process called jailbreaking. The Digital  
Millennium Copyright Act bans people from defeating technical  
protections for copyrighted materials (such as the encryption on  
DVDs). The act requires the government to consider exemptions to this  
ban every three years.
Apple, not surprisingly, filed an objection, saying that jailbreaking  
a phone indeed violates copyright law and that no exception should be  
granted.
One of the key legal arguments is whether installing software on an  
iPhone that is not sold through Apple’s iTunes store is an  
infringement of Apple’s copyright. The E.F.F. argues that it does not  
and that Apple’s motivation is simply to preserve its revenue from  
software sales.


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