Apple says iPhone Jailbreakers breaking copyright law

EEF calls it how they see it

Apple says iPhone Jailbreakers breaking copyright law
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13 February 2009 22:28 GMT / By Stuart Miles

iPhone users who jailbreak their phone to allow unauthorised applications to be installed on the mobile phone are breaking copyright laws according to Apple.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a freedom-of-speech advocacy organization, this is the first public statement from Apple about its legal position on "jailbreaking".

Apple in comments filed with the Copyright Office says "Jailbreaking an iPhone constitutes copyright infringement and a DMCA violation".

"Jailbreaking" is the term used for removing restrictions that only allow you to install software downloaded from the App Store on the phone.

Jailbreaking an iPhone breaks the law, Apple said, because the process relies on pirated copies of the bootloader and operating system.

Fred von Lohmann, blasted Apple on the EEF website:

"Apple justifies [its position] by claiming that opening the iPhone to independently created applications will compromise safety, security, reliability and swing the doors wide for those who want to run pirated software", said Lohmann.

"If this sounds like FUD, that's because it is. One need only transpose Apple's arguments to the world of automobiles to recognize their absurdity", he says. "Sure, GM might tell us that, for our own safety, all servicing should be done by an authorized GM dealer using only genuine GM parts. Toyota might say that swapping your engine could reduce the reliability of your car. And Mazda could say that those who throw a supercharger on their Miatas frequently exceed the legal speed limit. But we'd never accept this corporate paternalism as a justification for welding every car hood shut and imposing legal liability on car buffs tinkering in their garages".

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Comments

  • Leon says iPhone Jailbreakers shouldn't have dropped a weeks wage on a device that they had to hack to use! Posted by L.Rawlins, UK
  • FFS, Apple are worse than Microsoft, they actually moan about themselves getting beaten. If you don't want your products to get hacked/jailbreaked, then don't lock people in to your crappy App store, or just don't sell your product then it won't get jailbreaked. People buy your product let them have fun with it. All I can say is if Apple suddenly dropped off the face of the earth, it wouldn't be a terribly bad thing, restricting the customers is getting out of hand in all aspects of technology (games/computers/stores/products of any type) Posted by J, UK
  • Yes I would have to agree with you about this matter Iphone is still high in price, and its not fare to the people whom are unfortunate than others.

    So this is the cause of this matter if they would lower the prices then people will not have a reason to take chances such as this pirating Iphone stuff.     Posted by Dmobile215, Dmobile215 INC
  • Take a look at this article, a kid got caught on there IPHONE texting bad things, you never know whats going out here. Technology is advancing and making us go nuts.

    Stop crying Apple you are making money why cry, lower the prices.

    Take a look at my article concerning Iphone kids texting.

    http://www.gomestic.com/Family/Texting-Teenagers.518431     Posted by Dmobile215, US

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