Apple Inc.'s control over its iPhone and other devices via its iTunes store was undercut Monday by a federal ruling legalizing jailbreaking, or altering the devices to install unapproved software, a practice used now by a small number of customers.
Posted on 07/26/2010 3:47:16 PM PDT by OneVike
Apple Inc.'s control over its iPhone and other devices via its iTunes store was undercut Monday by a federal ruling legalizing jailbreaking, or altering the devices to install unapproved software, a practice used now by a small number of customers.
The Library of Congress, which helps oversee copyright law, removed a legal cloud over altering of iPhones, iPads and iPods, to install and run software not purchased from Apple.
Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at Electronic Freedom Foundation, the digital-rights organization that pushed for the change, said the ruling could open the door for third-party app stores. "Innovators now know that there will be customers for them," she says.
It's unclear how many companies will take advantage of the ruling, which affects a law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. By one estimate just 8% of iPhones have been altered to allow such downloads.
"I don't think it's that big a deal," said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "The mainstream iPhone customer isn't complaining about apps they can't get because of Apple's restrictive policies."
Apple has reviewed and maintained veto power over apps for the iPhone since it opened the device to outside developers in 2008. These apps can only be downloaded from Apple's App Store. Monday's ruling applies to other smartphone makers but only Apple now restricts what apps can run on its devices.
Computer experts have found ways to get around the code that tethers iPhones to the App Store, however, allowing device owners to download and run programs that haven't been approved by Apple. The legality of the practice was not clear, so it hasn't caught on widely.
Mario Ciabarra, president of Rock Your Phone Inc., which sells apps for jailbroken iPhones,
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Gaaaareeeen Acres is the place for me.... yeee ha.
Arnold Ziffel
>>That’s a mixed metaphor that Lisa Douglas would be proud of!
LOL! I hadn’t thought of that show for ages. :) It was funner than a barrel of spilled milk!
I think Rock asks you to change it for you.
I just want the ability to put on the phone what I want.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
It’s all good. I’m still green on my acres. Maybe apple can come up with something like the Windows Registry to make it hard for people to copy programs across phones.
RE: Are they permitted to switch to a Droid?
Why they would want to I don’t know. I want to throw mine through the window.
Why did you move this from breaking news? From what I see, the story broke and no one ever posted anything. Fact is CNN Money was the only source to carry the news yesterday evening, but no one posted it here on FR. So why does that not count as Breaking News?
Just curious is all, so I can get the rules down and not make the same error in some future post. Because I had posted day old stories to breaking news before when no one else ever posted the story. Usually when the story was within 24 hours new though. I always thought 24 hours was the deadline for a breaking story.
Please let me know what the rules on breaking news stories are if they are not the same as they used to be.
This wasn’t just about the iPhone, even though that’s getting all the headlines.
Sadly, some of the other requests were refused becaused nobody has been damaged enough yet. :-(
Why would you care if somebody now has the right to unlocked their phone?
Yea, I was talking with my Father-in-law about this and he mentioned the same thing. It usually does take the damage to be done by a giant before the feds wake up and do something, unless it is done for purely political reasons.
On the other end of the argument, it does seem like Steve Jobs has pissed off the powers that be and they are now going after him. Even the MSM is on the war path against him.
I am thinking that he has made no bones about the fact that Obama and his fascists friends in Congress are destroying his customer base (the middle Class) and if things are not changed soon, then the likes of his and other types of giant companies will soon disappear.
After all, once they have destroyed the most vibrant middle class the world has ever known, there will be no one who can afford their pricey toys. Then with no customers, his company will cease to exist.
It will be an interesting game to watch. I say game because with these guys that’s all it is. While we fight to survive and retain our individual freedoms, his kind acts like they are playing a political game of chess with his socialist friends in control from the left.
When the political landscape changes and we throw Obama and the Democrats out of office, Jobs and his kind will still have their billions, while his political friends will be high and dry on the government dole enjoying their leisure retirement. Then when the dust finally settles, the losers will be the American people who lost because we will never fully reverse the damage they inflicted upon this once great Republic.
Now for the pessimist part of my thinking. Our grandchildren will be like the people of Rome, who fled from the Vandals sacking her after the last Emperor ran for the hills because the once proud Rome was no more. Our grandchildren will ask us on our deathbeds, why we allowed it to happen, if they even care.
All because of this ruling on the i-Phone you ask?????
Naw,
All because of the Steve Jobs of America have sold us out to the likes of Obama and his Fascists friends in control. The ones who are now going after him and other producers of America.
Wow, I just completely depressed myself. I think it’s time for me to push my chair away from this machine, have a drink and get my gear ready for some fly fishing tomorrow.
Really? I have the nerve to demand I can do to my own device as I see fit? Because I BOUGHT it. Its like Ford selling me a car and telling me im not allowed to put in my own radio or paint it to a color of my liking.
And your teacher analogy... uh. right.
Yes I do understand the thought process you are faced with. I cannot deny that I think along the same lines to a point.
However, it does bring into question the whole idea that we again have the government stepping in to tell a business how they can run their company and what they can and cannot allow.
If there were not so much regulation involved in the production and distribution of products made by companies, then there would be many more competitors who would be producing the same type of product because the demand would be out there. Then the other companies would be more open to allowing what the regulators just forced Apple into doing.
With less regulation, then more competition, more competition would create what you accept the government forcing. Steve Jobs likes and promotes thos in government who regulate companies and what they can and cannot do. So ergo, Apple is getting bit by their own desire for Big Government regulation. Thus I really do not shed a tear for what the ruling will do to his company.
In a society with minimum honest regulation, Steve Jobs would not be in the position of being at the top, but regulations by politicians he supports have long ago made the playing field uneven in his and other liberal millionaire’s favor.
So I usually state my opinion in an idealistic society way, but push comes to shove I agree with the ruling because it has finally come back to bite him in the ass.
I hope that all makes sense.
What is saddest in this is that we need permission from our government to do what we should have been able to do in the first place. The government removes freeddom, then doles out little bits of freedom back as it sees fit. Anybody else see something wrong with this concept?
I can't understand why a company would sell a product, and then dictate exactly how you can use it after it becomes your private property. I know many valid reasons for Apple locking the phone, but the extent of legal enforcement for it should be that Apple will not honor warranties or support agreements for modded phones. Beyond that, it's your property, do as you wish.
You have to dig deeper. Before 1998 jailbreaking was not illegal. You could do as generations of people had done to their property, modifying it, hacking it, and in generally exploring what could be done. Then companies (MPAA, RIAA, etc.) went to the government to have the DMCA passed, which made jailbreaking illegal. This is the government making an exception to the rule the companies bought in the first place.
So if you want to complain about government involvement and regulation of business, talk to the businesses who asked for it in the first place. Have no sympathy for them.
What's worse is that the DMCA's prohibition on circumvention wasn't even designed to prohibit jailbreaking, but cracking things like CSS on DVDs, which protect copyrighted content. That was bad enough, but companies figured that they could lock hardware by putting such protection on a bit of their copyrighted software. You have to remove that protection in order to free the hardware, thus invoking the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause. Such a use has been overturned in court so far, but nobody's willing to go up against Apple over this.
You knew the limitations the seller put on the product when you bought it. If you disagree with those limitations you can buy other products from other sellers.
I didnt realize other products offered the same OS. Weird. Oh, none do. Im not for Govt intervention into allowing jailbreaking. Im for Apple following their own mantra of "openness" and freedom. Many times they have straight-up lied about limitations with newer OSes on their older phones.
So anything they say explaining why they dont allow what every other smartphone handset does, I take with a grain of salt.
So ill continue to jailbreak as long as its available to let me get the most out of my money.
I am against the government disallowing jailbreaking in the first place.
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