March 6, 2012

Jailbreaking iOS devices

Jailbreaking allows people to download apps for free by modifying thier i-devices to remove limitations made by Apple. Doing that allows you to gain root access of the device, essentially making you an administrator or a superuser. Many people have jailbroken their iOSs, including some people in Smith Middle School. Jailbreaking has not been challenged by legal issues, but it might soon be. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) allowed Apple to charge jailbreakers with a $2,500 fine for the "circumvention of technological measures”, or in other words, circumventing copyrights. In 2009, Apple requested to include jailbreaking as a copyright violation, but this was denied as part of the 2009 DMCA rulemaking. In the ruling, the Library of Congress states that jailbreaking is exempt from the DMCA rules, but it also stated that the exemption must be reviewed every 3 years. This year, the year that the exemption expires, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a supporter of jailbreaking, is asking the copyright office to extend the exemption. They have yet to receive an answer. The EFF supports jailbreaking because of it’s many useful purposes, such as extending battery life or using the iOS’s flashlight with just a push of a button, instead of having to open an app to see in the dark.

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