I’m all for enthusiasts being able to hack their iPhones and Jailbreak the hell out of them. Telling people what they can or can’t do with the devices they purchase isn’t something that I think anyone should have a say in, outside of the person who bought the thing.
Today Jailbreakers in the US of A let out a collective sigh of relief when the U.S. government announced that it is officially legal for iPhone owners to “jailbreak their devices.” I personally don’t jailbreak my phones, I can’t be bothered, but a lot of my close friends do, and I’m glad they can. Being locked into a particular system because a corporation tells you that you have to be is a little bit much, even for me.
That being said, I don’t believe Apple should be on the hook to replace these devices should something go wrong with a jailbreak. Jailbreaking comes with a level of caution, and should you brick your phone, you should be on your own. Rumours last week, which have since been debunked, said that Apple was going to be watermarking phones with information that would let them know if a phone had been jailbroken in the past. Hopefully no one at Apple read those ideas, because now that it’s legal to Jailbreak your iPhone, executives at Apple might be scrambling for a way to determine if people are messing with devices.
You can now legally Jailbreak, but I wouldn’t expect support from Apple for much longer.
News on carrier unlocks
Another major point in the announcement today points out that consumers have the right to have their phones unlocked for use on carriers of their choice, despite contracts between carriers and phone producers for exclusivity. We’re not sure how this one’s going to play out, but we can see people jumping to other carriers in the US a lot faster than AT&T would like. T-Mobile on the other hand probably rejoiced when they heard the news.
What Jailbreaking doesn’t mean: stealing apps.
You do not have any right to illegally pirate software on any device, Jailbroken phones included. We’ll neither provide information on how to do this, nor will we entertain questions or comments on the topic. Developers work extremely hard trying to bring us innovative new applications, and condoning something that takes the food out of their cupboards is not something we’ll do. It’s down right disgusting that blogs have decided to give step by step tutorials on how to do this today. Maybe they don’t understand the legislation, or maybe they’re just fishing for hits, either way, it’s wrong. That’s all I have to say about that.
Article via AppleInsider
Photo Credit: Maique
