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In: apple
13 Feb 2009Apple has officially gone on record to state that jailbreaking your iPhone (or iPod Touch I imagine) is now illegal:
Jailbreaking an iPhone constitutes copyright infringement and a DMCA violation, says Apple in comments filed with the Copyright Office as part of the 2009 DMCA triennial rulemaking. This marks the first formal public statement by Apple about its legal stance on iPhone jailbreaking.
The natural reaction would be to get upset and throw a tantrum, right? Well, I’m not blaming Apple. I blame the software pirates who recently developed a method, which requires jailbreaking, to pirate purchased iPhone/iPod Touch applications. It’s called Crackulous. In my opinion, Crackulous literally forced Apple to take action as these pirates were essentially stealing money from app developers. Yes, it’s stealing. So before you get all upset at Apple and call them all sorts of names, remember none of this may not have happened had it not been for idiots people who refuse to buy software.
Yeah, I said it.
I’ll be restoring my iPhone back to factory state as a result of this announcement. Thanks a lot, Crackulous.
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View Comments to Jailbreaking Now Illegal: Blame The Pirates
Marc Handelman
February 13th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Apple Inc. certainly has the right, duty and obligation (as a corporate entity) to protect their intellectual property, stock in trade, et cetera, and I firmly support the company in that effort. Notwithstanding, only the Judicial Branch can rule on unlawful or illegal behavior, as enacted by the Congress, of these United States. Apple Inc’s declaration is corporate opinion, and not necessarily fact – at this time; as such, it must be tested in a court of law, to become awarded the dubious status of illegality. Of course, this is my opinion as well…
Jordan Patterson
February 13th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
I knew this would eventually happen. Its a shame people have to steal software. http://bit.ly/TheCheapGeek
Tsudohnimh
February 13th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I don't disagree with your take on apple being forced to respond to theft. I have a jailbroken iphone only to give me access to free apps that aren't offered thru iTunes and I find this a big disheartening. I'd like to think there was a middle ground to classify the theft of apps as illegal and still allow a gray area for jailbreaking.
C'est la vie.
Bwana
February 13th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Engadget claims Apple is actually asking for it to be classified as "not legal" instead of "illegal". I don't understand the paradoxes of law so it's over my head. To me, it's illegal or not with no real gray area. Ideally, what you say would be best. If only we could punish those who steal! Wouldn't that be marvelous?
At any rate, it's not going to get better.
Ijunkie
February 13th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
You could add me to this list of disapointed people…unfortunately it only takes one bad apple to get rid of the entire basket …it’s just a fact of life, damage control!
eran
February 14th, 2009 at 10:59 am
apple is officially daft
jailbreaker
February 14th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
We can hack our own things Apple cant do shit about it.
The Cheap Geek » Blog Archive » Jailbreaking your iPhone is now illegal
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:50 am
[...] “copyright infringement and a DMCA violation”. This story came to the cheap geek via Bwana.org, and after reading his post on the subject I agree that Apple is not to blame. They have to [...]
public records
May 10th, 2010 at 5:58 am
Unlocking has become less of an issue because most places now.