iPhone jailbreaking (and all cell phone unlocking) made legal

[Hefemeister]

Owners of iPhones and other smartphones are one step closer towards taking complete control of their gadgets, thanks to a new government ruling Monday on the practice of "jailbreaking."

This weekend has seen a flurry of activity about digital rights, but the biggest news dropped Monday morning, when the FCC announced that it had made the controversial practice of “jailbreaking” your iPhone — or any other cell phone — legal.

Jailbreaking — the practice of unlocking a phone (and particularly an iPhone) so it can be used on another network and/or run other applications than those approved by Apple — has technically been illegal for years. Most jailbroken phones are used on the U.S. T-Mobile network or on overseas carriers, or are used to run applications that Apple refuses to sell, such as Safari ad-blocking apps, alternate keyboard layouts, or programs that change the interface to the iPhone's SMS system and the way its icons are laid out.

iPhone jailbreaking (and all cell phone unlocking) made legal - Yahoo! News

FREEDOM

Apple fought hard against the legalization, arguing that jailbreaking was a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed, saying that jailbreaking merely enhanced the inter-operability of the phone, and was thus legitimate under fair-use rules.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

ZOMG! FINALLY!

 

[zedman3d]

Awesome.

 

[Harper]

KEWL! Means I can start thinking about tethering my iPad to my iPhone now.

 

[Trotter]

I have temporarily closed the thread while i clean it up. I am deleting 23 posts due to the whole DRM issue.

Allow me to make this chrystal clear. While jailbreaking may now be legal and may therefore be discussed on Tech-Forums, defeating DRM has not, is not, and wil notl be allowed in discussions here on Tech-Forums. The analogies that can be given don't mean squat.

This is the final word on that particular subject. Any further pushing into that area will be dealt with on the spot. I prefer to be more lenient and laid back, but this is one subject that I am going to be very hard on and I am instructing the staff to do likewise. I would rather protect TF than to cater to the whims of those who want to argue "theoretically" about whether it ought to be alowed or not.

If you have a problem with that then take it up with me via PM. Posting it up in the forums will meet with the same as pursuing the DRM discussion.

 

[Kharn]

I will also add to this -

While the unlocking of the iphone is now legal in the USA DRM and copyright theft is not, the first post i encounter will be deleted and the poster will get a warning the next time that user posts a DRM violation they will get a sizaeable infraction.

 

[.Andy]

I'm not jailbreaking my iPhone. While its legal it still will be open to hacks as it changes the root passwrod ect. Its long out of warntee but I have failed to see a point.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

To permit for other carriers instead of AT&T, or to allow other programs to run on the phone.

 

[hikaricloud]

I'm not jailbreaking my iPhone. While its legal it still will be open to hacks as it changes the root passwrod ect. Its long out of warntee but I have failed to see a point.

...what are you talking about? It doesn't change the root password...the root password is the same default password it's always had. It's up to you to change it once you jailbreak it so it's not open to hacks.

 

[Apokalipse]

If anything, the jailbroken phones are actually more secure.
There is a site you can visit which can jailbreak the phone just through the browser, and all you have to do is slide a bar across the screen.
Basically, the reason that's possible is because of a security issue with the iphone, which gets fixed if you actually do jailbreak it (Apple has not fixed it themselves).