Apple iPhone Jailbreaking (and all cell phone unlocking) Made Legal
While the courts have been busy making decisions about digital rights, Washington has also been having its say on copyright law, at least as it relates to the iPhone and other handsets. Key new rules arrived Monday morning. Most notably, the FCC has made the controversial practice of jailbreaking your iPhone or any other cell phone legal.
Jailbreaking the practice of unlocking a phone (and particularly an iPhone) so it can be used on another network and/or run other applications than those approved by Apple has technically been illegal for years. However, no one has been sued or prosecuted for the practice. (Apple does seriously frown on the practice, and jailbreaking your phone will still void your warranty.) Its estimated that more than a million iPhone owners have jailbroken their handsets. Apple fought hard against the legalization, arguing that jailbreaking was a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed, saying that jailbreaking merely enhanced the inter-operability of the phone, and was thus legitimate under fair-use rules.
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