boingboing.net — The Electronic Frontier Foundation has selected some of the best submissions from the Copyright Office's review of whether it should continue to be legal in the USA to "jailbreak" your devices in order to make them more suited to their needs. In this post, we hear from a deaf man who jailbreaks his phone so that he can use it as an assistive device at work; a military worker in Kuwait who jailbreaks his phone so he can quickly access the flashlight function to scare off dangerous wildlife near the base; and a nurse whose jailbroken device allows her to "track my performance, treatments used on
Feb 8, 2012 View in Crawl 4
nickchopperFeb 8, 2012
Whose business is it anyway if somebody modifies there own property?
scottkeefeFeb 9, 2012
The idea that you buy something and then can't do whatever the f**k you want with it is just absurd on its face.
norman619Feb 8, 2012
Because you BOUGHT the thing. It is your own property. That's reason enough.
rotfoxFeb 9, 2012
I thought it was legal? Is it not anymore? Are their bills in the work that make it illegal?
JLF2035Feb 9, 2012
Wait, it's illegal? Meh... who cares? Jailbreak anyway. F
JLF2035Feb 9, 2012
hmm. I guess I didn't delete all of that last part.... Oh well.
casspaFeb 8, 2012
Is it always illegal?
fakbik2Feb 9, 2012
I thought this already made it to a federal court a while ago...
motozeroFeb 9, 2012
Do you all feel that companies should be able to make you pay more for a good smart phone, as opposed to one that the company purposefully makes poorly? Boost mobile runs on the same Sprint network as all their cell phones, the 3g one. But they don't want use to "understand how it really works" or we would all see they have a market cornered and their goal right now is to get 100$ a month from every house. If you choose to stray down to the 35$- 50$ they MAKE you have a crappy phone, through laws they MAKE UP. Yes your "free smart phone with plan" really does cost you 500$ over the long run because your almost leasing a car for your phone. These "human" companies are not motivated to work for the consumer one bit, save the internet. And wouldn't you know, they are starting to attack that too.
andysasylumFeb 8, 2012
Duh, because it helps us make prisons better... wait. What?
viralinFeb 9, 2012
Isn't that kinda like Ford telling me I can't modify my car? Sure if I put a supercharger on it might void my warranty, but I knew that!
freakazoidzaFeb 9, 2012
*Should remain legal
It already is legal, they trying to make it illegal.
steve8867Feb 9, 2012
It should not be illegal.
paulneyFeb 9, 2012
It is legal. http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2010/07/dmcaexemps.pdf
If the jailbreak breaks something, then the warranty doesn't cover it...but that's fair.
untitledavFeb 9, 2012
It is illegal because apple said so
syncalvoFeb 9, 2012
If they want to restrict jailbreaking then they should stop selling phones. Seriously. If I BUY a phone, it's mine, my property to do with what I want...just like buying a home or a car. The only constitutional way to legally prevent jailbreaking would be to LEASE phones, rather than sell. Something leased is merely borrowed and in your possession but you do not at any time "own" it. Therefore...the owner determines what you can and can't do with it.
dsniegockiFeb 9, 2012
It's pretty simple, actually .... owning property is a different prospect then exercising a software license. You "own" the phone, you 'license" the software. Licensing it does not mean you can use it however you like.
As to it being "smart" to disallow jailbreaking as part of the license agreement? Another matter entirely.
flarn2006Feb 9, 2012
What if you want to install a different operating system on the phone? Are you saying they're allowed to prevent you from doing that just because of the license for the software that's on there already?
moducFeb 9, 2012
It's odd these days that we have to make law to enforce our right on our own properties. It should be illegal by default for any one to violate those rights.
trivialanomalyFeb 8, 2012
Technology keeps delivering us more and more freedom. You can't keep negating that with more and more regulation.
michaelpaul529Feb 8, 2012
To make jailbreaking illegal would be so dumb, esp for iphone and ipod users. Jailbreaking offers the customization options that an Android device would. The free apps and themes are the best to. I have a jailbroken ipod and i would be really angry if they were to make it illegal.
jaketyson85Feb 8, 2012
I agree with her on principal, however I feel that it's pie in the sky to think that the people making the rules (the ones with the money from making said product) would ever be so thoughtful.
stealthspcFeb 8, 2012
I'm pretty sure it's already legal to.
theunlearnFeb 8, 2012
There is only a temporary exception in the DMCA that is due to expire soon.
Mark_LincolnFeb 8, 2012
They were flown to Gitmo restrained in a painful position, arms bound, on their knees, and torsos pulled back. The flights lasted many hours.
They were, the Bush administration told us, the 'worst of the worst.'
A few were. Most, it turns out, were totally innocent.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
bookantFeb 9, 2012
Just out of curiousity.
Are you just SPAMing this everywhere as a way of calling attention to your cause, or do you actually not have a f**king clue what this article is actually about?