Is Jailbreaking legal?
Jailbreaking a device involves circumventing its
technological protection measures (in order to allow root access and running
alternative software), so its legal status is affected by laws regarding
circumvention of digital locks, such as laws protecting digital rights
management (DRM) mechanisms. Many countries do not have such laws, and some
countries have laws including exceptions for jailbreaking.
Late last week, the Librarian of Congress issued the latest
set of exemptions to a copyright law that covers this kind of thing, the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It said that smartphones were exempt
and that tablets were not.
In other words, if you jailbreak your iPhone you can't be
sued for DMCA violations. But if you jailbreak your iPad, you can, even though
you would be running the same jailbreaking app on the same operating system,
just on a larger device.
To be clear, jailbreaking was never illegal per se. There
was just some uncertainty on whether or not Apple could take legal action
against jailbreakers if it ever decided to. But this decision makes it clear:
jailbreaking is not illegal.
At least on iPhones, anyway. The Register of Copyrights, who
is responsible for determining DMCA exemptions, felt that the term “tablet” was
too broad to rule on. So unfortunately the iPad was not included in this year’s
list of exemptions.
The act of unlocking smartphones was also excluded from the
new exemptions list. After 6 years of permitting users to unlock their handsets
to take to other carriers, the Librarian of Congress decided that it was time
to move on.
Why the sudden change? According to the filing, the Register
is updating the policy “to align it with today’s market realities.” It believes
that carriers are now much more liberal with their unlocking policies, and
there is no longer a need to intervene. But don’t worry, all handsets purchased
before January of 2013 will be covered under the previous exemption.
This Makes No Sense
The tablet exemption is a bit of a head scratcher. I'm free
to jailbreak my iPhone and do as I please with it, but
Accessing Cydia on my iPhone 4 is cool, but doing it on a
screen a few inches bigger? That's illegal. Other than its size, the only
significant difference between these two devices is that the iPhone makes and
receives calls.
The new rules also forbid personal copying of DVDs. And
starting in January 2013, it will be illegal to unlock new smartphones for the
purpose of switching carriers. Unlocking older handsets will continue to be
fine. The whole thing illustrates what Ars Technica's Timothy B. Lee calls
"the fundamentally arbitrary nature of the DMCA's exemption process."
Sources:
- http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/10/25/jailbreaking-is-still-legal/
- http://www.businessinsider.com/jailbreak-the-iphone-but-not-the-ipad-2012-10
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_jailbreaking
- http://readwrite.com/2012/10/28/yup-jailbreaking-your-ipad-is-illegal
- http://www.wired.com/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jailbreaking/
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