Mobile Phone Jail Breaking Now Ok By the Feds
Jail breaking your mobile device is not going to violate federal copyright laws any longer. This came down in a ruling from the United States Copyright Office. The decision handed down is something that is one part of a process that takes place every three years. In the decision it states that the bypassing the manufacturers protection mechanisms to allow mobile handsets to execute different software applications is acceptable.
They additionally allowed bypassing on the anti-copying technology that’s used in DVDs; however, it’s only for the following:
• Noncommercial videos
• Documentary filmmaking
• Educational uses
The ruling is something that stopped just short of allowing legal backup copies from Americans for their own use should the original DVD get damaged. Additionally, it doesn’t apply to the production of backup copies of Blu-Ray or videogame discs.
The iPhone maker, Apple, had been one of the staunchest objectors to the jail breaking phones exemption. They sent a letter to the Copyright Office arguing that allowing the jail breaking would cause infringement on copyrights, possible device damage and much other potential of harmful physical effects along with breach of contract and adverse effects when it comes to device functionality. I don’t think they missed anything on their list there.
Apple states that their support department gets millions of instances of issues that stem directly from jail broken phones. They state that through the legitimization of the jail breaking practice it would result in additional malware delivery outside of the Apple Application store, physical damage to the iPhone and other types of security problems.
The announcement definitely comes as victory for the enthusiasts of jail breaking and the critics of the 1998 anti-circumvention portions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act although it might not actually have much of a practical effect.
Apple has actually never sued any of their customers on the grounds of their jail breaking violates the DMCA anti-circumvention law enough that there are estimates back from February of 2009 which suggest that almost a half million iPhone customers have actually done so. It’s also never filed any lawsuits for breach of contract either. This would be something that would be done if the software license agreement was violated.
There is a civil liberties group out of San Francisco that has previously requested that the Copyright Office expand upon the exceptions from the DMCA laws. The DMCA law has been a focus of controversy for over a decade among:
• Hackers
• Programmers
• Security researchers
• Others
Although it doesn’t flat out ban the DMCA does restrict the bypassing of copyright protection technologies.
Both the Librarian of Congress along with the Copyright Office have taken some very important steps this past Monday to be able to mitigate some of the harmful effects that were caused by the DMCA. There is the thrill that jail breakers, vidders and unlockers are now free from the extremely overbroad reach of the DMCA law.
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Tags: apps, cell phone safety, iphone, jail break