Kevin Lee, a senior at George Mason University, Virginia, has turned iPhone jailbreaking into a full-time job, hacking customers devices to earn an impressive $50,000 a year. Lee uses Craigslist to advertise his services, which include unlocking, jailbreaking, and customizing devices to a user’s preference.
Lee told The Washington Post that he started off with a mere 5 to 10 customers a week – most of whom were friends. Now he pulls in between 30 and 40 – performing relatively simple hacks that many people don’t like to attempt themselves. A recent customer from the Mongolian embassy wanted his device unlocked so that he could use it in Mongolia when he moves.
Lee’s interview with The Washington Post is rather short, and he has since declined to provide further comment, removing his advert and contact details from Craigslist.
Though jailbreaking was ruled legal last year by the Library of Congress, many still fear repercussions from Apple. I’m sure the Dev-Team behind PwnageTool, RedSn0w and other jailbreak & unlock tools won’t be too happy either – in the past they have publicly shown their displeasure to others who try to make money from the tools that they provide for free.
Lee isn’t the only person to make money from this service, however. Kyle Matthews from ModMyI said in the report:
The industry just keeps increasing; there are even repair stores that will jailbreak for you.
The article is well worth a read and provides some interesting information on the jailbreaking community and the state of the industry at the moment.
[via iPhone Download Blog]
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
31 responses to “Student Makes $50,000 A Year Jailbreaking iPhones”
Dev-Team may be unhappy that someone is making money off of their developments? I know people who make money helping set up Linux servers for businesses. Linux is free. Should they stop servicing their customers? I don’t think so. Not everyone is adept at technology and just because you provide something for free doesn’t make it wrong for others to profit by helping other people use it.
I completely agree – I merely stated that the Dev-Team have previously frowned upon this practice – that’s not my view.
Killian
Very smart guy. There are a lot of people who are involved in this kind job.
In 2007 I made my first million pesos (around $20k) doing the same thing, jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones. Now the girlfriend has took over the business but business is no longer as active as pre-official iPhone days.
In asian tech places, there is always jailbreaking stations… they will do it for cheap too… however I’m a big techy and ive been doing it myself since 2007 on the first iPhone… Its EXTREMELY simply and easy to find instructions online, but some people just love other people doing shit for them, so why not make money off them
When you make your money doing something illegal don’t talk about it to the press!
Let me preempt any of you “no its legal” people the DCMA exemption is very clearly stated in the law to only apply to consumers on their own phones (oh and only phones, no iPod, iPad or Apple TV) Jailbraking other’s phones for fun and profits is still quite illegal
The only practice that I’ve heard of them (and any open source developer) complaining about is people selling the SOFTWARE for money. It shouldn’t be any problem at all if somebody is selling the services of jailbreaking a device, and counseling them in how to use the device once it is jailbroken.
Actually as I recall even giving away the software or services is a no no under the exemption. It was worded as it is okay for you to do it to your own device and that’s all.
And of course there’s the whole issue of comments about ‘repercussions’. The only one that Apple can take is telling you that you voided your warranty and flagging the device as unserviceable so even if you restore and remove the jailbreak they wouldn’t do anything. But that would require you to be dumb enough to walk in with a device you didn’t restore and update first (cause they will always update your software as part of fixing it) and saying you jail broke it. If you aren’t that stupid they will never know.
I would be more worried about university honor code myself. Many schools have a firm rule against any activities for fun or profit that could lead to copyright violations etc. This kid could get kicked out over it, especially since the school was named in the article (so if they don’t do something they will be seen as condoning the activity)
Lee may have been smart in doing his jail-break business, but he wasn’t very bright doing anything other than ignoring the Washington Post when they contacted him.
Hello, guys! How are you? I’m from Argentina, and I earn almost 3.000 dollars per month (maybe more) by jailbreaking and fixing iPhone, iPod and iPad software. 10 dollars per device, like 10 devices, or more, per day. First, working for friends, then web. Good bye!!!
I would really appreciate some clarification of the law. I find the locking of computing devices to be highly unethical when all contractual obligations have been met in its subsidized purchase pricing. If Apple insists, they should be required to call it what it is… a hardware lease… where ownership is clearly retained by the manufacturer and its service partners.
They are not charging for the software to jailbreak or unlock they are charging for their time and “labor” of doing it for someone who doesn’t want to do it and you know the saying time is money!
no it was’t ever illegal to do just recently did they say that doing it to your iphone was ok and apple is appealing that so we will see if it stays that way
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