Apple battles EFF, calls iPhone jailbreaking piracy

[JakeMD 107]

Apple battles EFF, calls iPhone jailbreaking piracy

14 February 2009 12:41 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 3 comments

  After staying notably silent on the subject of jailbreaking for the first year and a half of the iPhone's existence, Apple has now submitted a document to the Library of Congress claiming that reverse engineering the iPhone's operating system is copyright infringemnt.

Their claim is in response to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's submission for the annual DMCA exemption review. Under the DMCA, the Library of Congress is allowed to allow selected activities which would normally be forbidden by the DMCA. Due to encryption used for various bits of software in it, the reverse engineering require to jailbreak the iPhone OS falls under that cateogory.

The EFF is requesting an exemption for "Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute lawfully obtained software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications with computer programs on the telephone handset."

Apple's response indicates that they consider such an exemption inappropriate because it would violate their copyrights. As the EFF points out,"Running lawfully obtained software on a smart phone does not infringe copyright, nor does the process of jailbreaking a smart phone in order to accomplish this goal."

Apple's argument against this is that the iTunes App Store provides plenty of choice. The problem with this position is that it's ultimately Apple who gets to decide what's available,not developers or consumers. They reserve the right to turn down programs, or even remove them at any time.quote>

Sounds liike they are making another quick buck off of their consumers.

[Easy Bakes 253]

One more nail in the coffin of conveniance.

Pretty soon you will only be able to use certain phones with certian newtworks.

[Duke87 1,070]

What's interesting is that this is coming from the same company that was quite strongly against DRM on music.

So, they don't like inconveniencing customers to protect other people's copyrights, but when it comes to protecting their own...

Damned hypocrites.

[hym 358]

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

Pretty soon you will only be able to use certain phones with certian newtworks.quote>

Huh?

They already have that technology--it's known as locked phones.  The whole process of "unlocking" phones is about getting them to work with providers that they aren't supposed to be working with.

[JakeMD 107]

Locked phones on wiki

[TwelveToneMusic 0]

I hope they get shot down.

[psander5 195]

I've always hated apple's devices. Now there's one more 'con' to add to my list while i'm weighing up whether to get one of these or one of its competitors

[JakeMD 107]

Oh, Apple is making me pay $140 for dropping my ipod

Thanks stevey 

[Haljackey 17,241]

Originally posted by: SWAT-MEDIC

Thanks stevey 

quote>

Actually, If I'm not mistaken, that's a pic of Bill Gates! 

[Ntq€310 1]

Darn, and i thought the apple tax would help offset any of these issues

[Hamish 1,369]

Yeah, and isn't dropping your iPod your fault???

I'd be shocked if it was some technical malfunction and they didn't let you get a new one, unless its warranty had run out, but Im not surprised that they wont give you a new one for dropping it, because I wouldn't expect other companies to give you a new one for dropping it.

And that picture isn't steve jobs.

And back to the topic, Im sure that apple will get what they want in the end, they always do...

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Apple clearly didn't learn its lesson from losing out to PCs in the '80s. Its competitors are paying attention to this, and will use it to chip away at the iPhone's market share eventually, by making phones with more open availability. No sympathy from me, I own no Apple products and likely never will anyway.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: manticorefan  No sympathy from me, quote>

And now I have to post this:

[TwelveToneMusic 0]

Lol.

[ilikehotdogsalot 307]

Funny thing about it is that I watched Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder) say that 'People would mock you for not jailbreaking your iPhone' on a T.V show the other day.

Hm...

[JakeMD 107]

Yes I suppose it is my fault, but to replace some glass, should only be about 5 dollars

This just in, my ipod screen is completely black now, and I guess it is worth the amount they are charging is fair.

Now, I changed the picture to steve jobs. I can't believe I made that mistake, oh well

[toxicpiano 125]

Originally posted by: manticorefan by making phones with more open availability.quote>

They do already (see google android etc). The iPhone is still a runaway success. Besides, people will still jailbreak regardless of what they say.