EFF Asks To Make Jailbreaking Legal For All Devices 278
Diggester writes "Jailbreaking is a way to break off from the limitations imposed by the mobile vendor to download additional applications and themes etc. which aren't available otherwise. It provides root access to the device by use of custom kernels. It is common with the iDevices and has been rendered legal by the efforts of EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) in July 2010. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is now determined to make Jailbreaking legal for all the consumer electric goods. They have asked the US copyright office to declare it legal to jailbreak all the devices like smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles etc. no matter who the vendor is. The aim behind this plead is to change the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which prohibits such an access to the user."
Re:Question (Score:4, Informative)
They've already done it for the iPhone.
Re:Question (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wasn't this already done? (Score:5, Informative)
SFLC have a good submission too (Score:5, Informative)
SFLC's request would be a bigger win. Here's their submission:
https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2011/SFLC-proposed-DMCA-exemption.pdf [softwarefreedom.org]
And their press release gives an introduction:
http://softwarefreedom.org/news/2011/dec/02/proposed-dmca-exemption/ [softwarefreedom.org]
Re:PC analogy (Score:5, Informative)
That's in place already. Jailbreaking = insta void.
Re:Wasn't this already done? (Score:5, Informative)
In the US it is illegal to require a consumer to only use the vendor's services in order to maintain your warranty (Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act)
Re:Wasn't this already done? (Score:5, Informative)
This is seeking to legitimize on most consumer devices rather than just phones.
An action that would more than piss off executives at companies like Sony.
Re:Subsidized Devices (Score:5, Informative)
Summary of SFLC's submission (Score:5, Informative)
They've asked for a DMCA exception for:
So, for any device you buy, you can install GNU/Linux, or Rockbox, or OpenWRT, or Sugar, OpenMoko, etc.
Their argument is based on recognising the value of the jailbreak-exemption which was granted in 2009, and saying that SFLC's suggested exemtion is what's needed in 2012 and beyond to achieve that same sort of goal.
There's no dense legalese in the document. It's a readable set of arguments with numbers and examples to back them up.
Re:Consoles (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Jailbreaking consoles (Score:4, Informative)
Honestly, I can't imagine it'll be that huge an implication. Just because it'll be legal doesn't at all mean Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony need to make it easy, nor does it stop them from ruining old jailbreak methods with new firmware, like what they do now, to whatever effectiveness it does.
It just means fewer people get arrested for it. And I don't think I've heard about many arrests in that area lately.
Re:PC analogy (Score:5, Informative)
The Magnuson-Moss warranty act makes the legality of that questionable unless they can demonstrate that the jailbreaking caused or substantially contributed to the failure.
I just don't think anyone has bothered taking it to court, as it would really be cheaper just to buy a new phone than sue them over it.
Re:Isn't there a complication for phones? (Score:5, Informative)
Let me tell you a story about an FCC-approved transmitter. It ran on an open frequency at burst data, 12ms at 50mW. The harmonics and power were too high for the FCC. The FCC suggested that I put in a delay of 87ms then a 1ms burst. They would then average out the signal strength over 100ms and use the average power for the transmission for the tests.
I changed the code, it passed the tests, and microchip sends the chips pre-programmed by the reel.
So that's how software can change your FCC compliance.
Stop calling use users! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:PC analogy (Score:4, Informative)
a piece of hardware that legally can only be used to play said games
WTF are you talking about? Sony advertised the PlayStation as being able to run Linux. What country does have a law which says "a PlayStation can only be used to play games on?"