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iPod touch getting the Ipod touch 3.0 update for free is illegal or not?

R

ravitm

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 7, 2009
3
0
Ok so after i showed one of my freinds the cool features of the 3.0, that i downloaded via itunes software update, they decided to get it online for free. soon after doing that they had a hardware problem with their itouch about the headphone jack so they set up an appointment at the local Genius bar, but now hes worried that apple will be able to detect his update wasnt authorized.He says hes willing to go back to an earlier version of firmwire thats legal if it will erase the fact that he dled the 3.0 firmwire His internet is down so he called me and asked if i could post a message somehwere...please help if you can..oh and im not sure if what he did is illegal or not so if it is, im sorry for posting this thing here.

Oh and I recently jailbroke my ipod touch 2G before i got the 3.0 update but before i downloaded any new cooler apps from cydia, my itouch turned off and i had to reboot it, so i restored it to normal and decided not to jailbreak again for the health of my ipod.. i was wondering if i had any problem with my itouch and take it to the genius bar, would apple find out i jailbroke it..i used a DFU restore but im still unsure cuz i read somewhere that this kid jailbroke his phone and restored it but when he went to the genius bar they found it had bee jailbroken...Please help..thank you
 
oh ok so is my friend pretty much screwed in the fact that he cant go to the genius bar or he'd be found out?..and any idea about my own dilemna?..and thx for the fast repsonse
 
He can just go to the Apple Store they will not request any proof of purchase or anything. They don't ask for the history of the iTunes account to verify if the software is legit. It is definitely illegal, but I doubt you'll have any trouble for it. And if you restored your touch after Jailbreaking it you're safe also, just be sure you restored as a new iPod and not as a backup of a previous iPod.
 
Doing the right thing

So, if someone downloaded the free (illegal) version of 3.0 is there a way to pay the $10 and make it legit?

I guess one could restore to an earlier version, then do the legal update through iTunes, but would that mess up the apps?

Are there other options?

Tks.
 
Software is the same, there is no difference between free version and paid version if you got the right one. However, don't know if you can get iTunes to offer it for you since you already got it installed.
 
When I tryed puting 3.0 on before it came out i killed my touch and it had the I tunes logo and would not let me do anything so i went to apple and told then i let my dev friend use it for the weekend and they replaced it for $40, I did bring in my laptop tho, to show them what was going on, but i sncyed it with my imac g3 Sad right?
 
Oh ok thank you very much, and if you wanna make an appointment at the genius bar it tells you to bring your ipod, headphones, cable, and dock thing, if you dont have one of these things ( excluding the ipod of course), will they still replace your ipod if they find it faulty?
 
Eraserhead said:
Its also certainly morally wrong.
Click to expand...

It strongly disagree. It's morally wrong from Apple to charge for this update because they give it away for free to iPhone customers. And their accounting excuse is just this: A lame excuse to charge for a firmware update.

And Firmware is something that's built into the device, it's not a standalone product. It's almost as if Apple would ask their customers to pay for an EFI update for their Macs. Would you pay for an EFI or BIOS upgrade for your computer? Or a hardware driver? I strongly doubt it.

That being said, I do not condone the use of illegal software. Instead I decided against supporting Apple with my money and did not purchase this firmware upgrade for my iPod Touch.
 
Winni said:
It's morally wrong from Apple to charge for this update because they give it away for free to iPhone customers.
Click to expand...

iPhone users pay $50+/month for their phones, they're hardly getting the deal of a lifetime here.

Winni said:
And Firmware is something that's built into the device, it's not a standalone product. It's almost as if Apple would ask their customers to pay for an EFI update for their Macs. Would you pay for an EFI or BIOS upgrade for your computer? Or a hardware driver? I strongly doubt it.
Click to expand...

Apple charges for OS X though...

And you'd generally not get anything like this level of feature upgrades for an existing device from anyone else.
 
Eraserhead said:
Its not *illegal* as it isn't a criminal offence so you can't go to jail. However it is breaking copyright/the EULA and is a civil offence that would be enforceable in court..
Click to expand...

It doesn't have to be a crime to be illegal. Anything that breaks a law - in this case, civil contract law - is illegal.
 
There's an interesting bit of grey area in the case of iPod touch firmware, in that is is possible to download it directly from Apple's webserver, without authentication, and without paying for it.

The copy you obtain comes directly from Apple (no 3rd party is performing duplication/redistribution, Apple is) hence the act of downloading the firmware from Apple's website doesn't constitute infringement of Apple's exclusive rights as copyright holder. At least, it wouldn't under the currently accepted understanding of Canadian copyright law, which is what I personally need to be concerned about.

The act of installing it on an iPod touch does not involve circumventing any protective measures - you can use the normal, iTunes-supported method of forcing a restore from a locally-saved copy of the OS. Hence on the surface you don't appear to be violating the DMCA.

The thing that is really interesting is the question of license violation: Does the software licence agreement say anything about you agreeing to obtain the software through a certain channel. If so, then you've definitely got problems.

The usual disclaimer: I, like most members of this forum, am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
 
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