Apple: Jailbreaking iPhones and iPod touches is illegal

In comments filed with the U.S. Copyright Office related to a proposed new exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which would explicitly allow jailbreaking of iPhones, Apple has argued that jailbreaking constitutes copyright infringement and a DMCA violation, and is therefore illegal. The company claims that jailbroken iPhones depend on modified versions of Apple’s copyrighted bootloader and operating system software, and that these more open versions compromise safety, security, and reliability, along with making it easier for users who wish to pirate software. In the days following the iPhone’s release, Apple actively combatted jailbreaking through changes to the device’s software; it had appeared to give these measures less attention since the launch of iPhone OS 2.0 and the App Store, which provides a legal way to add applications to the devices.


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