Copyright Office: Jailbreaking an iPhone is Fair Use

Not everything is doom and gloom when it comes to our rights.

The Copyright Office within the LOC on Monday ruled that jailbreaking a smartphone—particularly Apple's iPhone—is permissible under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) fair use provisions.

Jail breaking is "innocuous at worst and beneficial at best," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington wrote in his decision.

Source : www.extremetech.com...

I was worried to get into legal trouble for rooting my phone, now I will definitely do it.

Here is a guide to do it : www.appleiphonereview.com...

I am glad you posted this. My wife and I both have iphones. Can you explain what this is and what it does. Thanks.

reply to post by spacecase7717


I believe it means free apps and things like that. If its free calling, thats freaking amazing. Too bad i don't use cell phones lol.

Jailbreaking is the process of gaining "Administrator" access of your phone. For example, if Apple think it's inappropriate to use their device as on the road Wifi hotspot, you jailbreak and reconfigure it to do so. It is also required in order to free your cell from your provider and insert a sim card from a competitor, very useful when traveling.

Be careful, it WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY.

This may seem like a small victory for Iphone owners, but the implications of this could be widespread.

Basically this could set a precedent that the electronic devices we buy are our own, and we are free to do with them what we wish.

I believe this is not only a victory for digital rights, but for personal property rights in general.


to the library of Congress.

That's a very welcome if small step in the right direction, in regards to consumer rights.

Personally I refuse use anything other than a dumbphone, but I'm sure the ability to load Apps that failed apple's approval process (mainly porn and games) is something many iphone users want.

Why anyone would want to carry their life around in a phone is beyond me. I don't want to be tracked or have my life hacked thank you very much. No, 30 sheets is all I'll ever pay for a mobile and all I want is calling and texting.

Originally posted by gagol
Jailbreaking is the process of gaining "Administrator" access of your phone. For example, if Apple think it's inappropriate to use their device as on the road Wifi hotspot, you jailbreak and reconfigure it to do so. It is also required in order to free your cell from your provider and insert a sim card from a competitor, very useful when traveling.

Be careful, it WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY.

I did this with another smartphone, not the iphone. My contract with AT&T was over and I wanted another provider, but the phone wouldn't accept a competitor's sim card. I just followed the instructions I found online and presto, I could put in a sim card from a competitor.

Maybe some of the folks from the EU can chime in here but I get the impression that many EU phones allow you to change providers and don't try to lock you into a single provider like many American phone companies do. I understand contract law so the American phone companies should just stick to the contract and when it's over, we should have a right to do what we want like shop around with different providers for the best rates.

Personally I'm not in favor of more laws, but it seems to me like what the American phone companies are doing should be illegal, locking the phone and taking away the freedom to do what we want with our phone, specifically using a competitor's sim card. The phone company practices are anti-competitive and jailbreaking allows some competition.

reply to post by gagol


Star and Flaged ! gagol
Thanks for posting this , as others i think this means much more and its about time too , buy 1000 phone and the damn thing is locked !