Great news for people who are looking forward to jailbreaking that Apple TV that’s on its way to you this week: The Library of Congress has amended the law to render after-market firmware modification completely legal in the United States.
Small questions like legality haven’t stopped people from opening up their gadgets before, but they’ll be happy to know that it’s totally above-board now.
The ruling (via RedmondPie) opens up mods across several types of hardware, including smartphones, tablets, and TVs.
Jailbreaking involves getting around a manufacturer’s software restrictions to install apps and functionality that companies like Apple may not intend for use on their devices. In minor cases, this could involve changing the default system font on one’s iPhone from the standard, locked-in San Francisco type that Apple has rolled out over the past year. But it could also mean just insane numbers of porn channels and apps for Apple TV or modifications that let owners repurpose their gadgets for uses outside those intended.
If you have a few hours and are partially fluent in legalese, you can check out the full, 81-page filing online. It covers the relevant history and the hows and whys of the Library of Congress’ decision to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and I hear that if you make it through the whole thing without dozing off, you get a cookie.
But the main thing is that this decision reinforces the concept that you own your devices and are free to do whatever you please with them (inside the law, obviously). That doesn’t mean that jailbreaking your iPhone won’t absolutely void your warranty, however; that bit is still completely up to Apple.
Previous punishments for violating the DMCA included up to $1 million fines and/or 10 years in prison for repeat offenses “for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain.”
And of course, you’re opening yourself up to the risk of malware, bricking your iPhone, or just completely opening the floodgates to a bunch of crappy apps that never would have survived the App Store’s screening process. But other than that, let the weirdness begin.
Evan Killham is a freelance writer who lives in Nebraska and isn’t interested in football, so he has plenty of time to play and think about video games. He has written for Bitmob and GamesBeat and sometimes, he even goes outside. But not too often because he’s heard there are bees out there. Occasionally, companies send free units for review. Evan subscribes to Cult of Mac’s Reviews Policy and also does not keep the items he receives for possible coverage.
7 responses to “U.S. government says you won’t get locked up for jailbreaking”
But the company doesn’t have to offer warranty support for products that have altered firmware.
But they certainly do, I have plenty of experience with it.
Not in the United States. And not if you agree to an exclusion. You either agree to the terms set forth or don’t play at all. A company only is only required to offer service on its own hardware, software, and firmware. If you have anything other than that, they are under no obligation to ensure 1) that your device continues to work correctly or 2) service the device should things go south.
l just received my second paycheck of $6395,72 workin` only few h on my Iaptop` past 5 days. My divorced’ friend with 3 kids at home, made over $10k her 1st month. It’s great makin’ this much money” when other people have to work for so much Iess. Go 2 my profiIe’ site-link to see what I do…..
`3344
I’ve been jail breaking since my 3GS, I always buy applecare, always use it, and have never had an issue. Just recently swapped out a clearly jailbroken 6Plus for a non related radio signal issue, and Apple store couldn’t care less. The tech had to restore to run the diagnostics on it to complete the exchange, noticing that the jailbreak seemed to be preventing it, so there was no question if they knew or not.
I hate seeing stories like this that perpetuate the Apple scare tactics intimidating people into not jailbreaking. ‘Well it might be legal now…but don’t do it if you don’t want to void your warranty,’ or whats up with immediately jumping to the porn angle? Its very useful to have the expensive devices you own liberated and usable to their full potential. If something goes wrong you can always just restore without a problem.
Maybe the three most useful:
MyFi enables tethering on my grandfathered AT&T data plan
NoSlowAnimations speeds up all those fancy animations so your phone doesn’t feel slow
MusicMod allows you to strip all the bs apple music bloat from the music player to have it back down to the basics and just play the music you store locally
Turning Apple Music off in settings does the same thing…
Does it also hide all the additional bloat options I don’t want? Hide radio, connect & replace, for you/new, library recents, playlist recents, etc. Just a higher level of customizability than stock apple allows.