Jailbreaking iPhones legal government says...

[chadrob30]

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.

While technically illegal, no one has been sued or prosecuted for the practice. (Apple does seriously frown on the practice, and jailbreaking your phone will still void your warranty.) It’s estimated that more than a million iPhone owners have jailbroken their handsets.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_wguy/ytech_wguy_tc3236

 

[chembox]

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/26/u-s-government-to-explicitly-allow-iphone-jailbreaking/

So does this mean Apple can't brick jailbroken iPhones?

 

[Intell]

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/26/u-s-government-to-explicitly-allow-iphone-jailbreaking/

So does this mean Apple can't brick jailbroken iPhones?

They can still brick them. They just can't sue you for jailbreaking.

PS: This has been posted so many times it is getting to be stupid.

 

[chadrob30]

LOL, my bad. Forgot how sensitive folks are on this site.

 

[rotobadger]

"has technically been illegal for years..."

God. Where do these writers get this? IT IS NOT, AND HAS NEVER BEEN "ILLEGAL" TO JAILBREAK YOUR PHONE!

Look at it like this:

The argument is that Jailbreaking violates your agreement with Apple and "breaks" the phone.

So, if I decide, in a fit of anger to throw my phone against the wall and shatter it, did I "break the law"? Of course not. Neither did the "Will it Blend" guy, or the iFixit folks doing the teardown.

There is NO LAW that prohibits you from Jailbreaking your phone. It simply means that Apple can refuse your warranty or support for that device.

Geez...

 

[rKunda]

LOL, my bad. Forgot how sensitive folks are on this site.

It's just common courtesy to just glance and see if you're duplicating a thread. There have to be 20 threads on this today. People aren't being sensitive, they're calling out people for being so anxious to have their own thread they don't care enough to check to see if it's been done.

 

[diabolic]

This really changes nothing for jailbreaking. It's not like Apple was suing anyone for it anyway. This is not going to make it any easier to jailbreak phones. Maybe if they'd said it was illegal for Apple to lock you in, then it might matter.