'Jailbreaking' gets green light in US
By Sakthi Prasad |
July 28, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE United States copyright office has issued exemptions to a copyright law, giving legal protection for people who unlock their smartphones, such as Apple Inc's iPhone.
Changing operators' fixed phone settings - a concept known as "jailbreaking" - has become widely popular around the world since the 2007 introduction of Apple's iPhone.
The move by the copyright office to give exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, will undermine handset makers' ability to control the installation of software programs on their phones.
The copyright office said a user can circumvent the phone's functionality to use any legally obtained software. The ruling also allows users to change the wireless service provider. Currently, AT&T Inc is the sole provider for Apple in the US.
"More than a million iPhone owners are said to have 'jailbroken' their handsets in order to change wireless providers," said the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which fought for the exemption.
Meanwhile, an Apple spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that "jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience" of the iPhone and it "can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably."
Changing operators' fixed phone settings - a concept known as "jailbreaking" - has become widely popular around the world since the 2007 introduction of Apple's iPhone.
The move by the copyright office to give exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, will undermine handset makers' ability to control the installation of software programs on their phones.
The copyright office said a user can circumvent the phone's functionality to use any legally obtained software. The ruling also allows users to change the wireless service provider. Currently, AT&T Inc is the sole provider for Apple in the US.
"More than a million iPhone owners are said to have 'jailbroken' their handsets in order to change wireless providers," said the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which fought for the exemption.
Meanwhile, an Apple spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that "jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience" of the iPhone and it "can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably."
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