Just because Apple assumes you have to use "THEIR" store to buy and sell your goods doesn't mean I have to do so and sure doesn't equate to Piracy when/if I don't.

FROG: "I tend to agree with Apple. we bought the iPhone knowing it’s done on Apples terms, and jailbreaking breaches those terms AND causes Apple to lose money."

I can't believe people still go this route... Are you aware that when you buy an Apple product you are ALSO agreeing to fight FOR Apple should a lawsuit come up that pertains to your Apple Hardware/Software? People who mindlessly agree to fulfill any and all EULA's are retarded (forgive my non-PC-compliancy here) and deserve their restricted purchases.

If I make something and sell it to you, it's yours. Yes, there are copyright laws that forbid you from re-selling it again as your own creation, but once it's left my hand I would be ridiculous to expect you to use whatever it is in whatever fashion I feel it is best used as. Maybe NOT so ridiculous to expect you not to sell it as your own, but then again... THAT'S what our laws are supposed to protect, my investment of time and money from being re-sold as someone elses creation. NOT how someone else USES my invention.

Just my high-handed and self-righteous opinion.

Stupid question- When you install a piece of hardware on any pc, does it change or modify the OS?

Apple are heralded as innovator, but the type of tactics they are using with iPhone app approval by limiting its capabilities is stifling innovation. Some of these limitations are imposed by 3rd parties such as telcos, but most are just a clear case of restricting the functions so they can be released later as a new innovative features, which the masses will embrace as amazing Apple innovation.

People will always find a way to get the most from the hardware they purchase and so they bloody should...

Goodbye, dipsh!ts.

I'm not going to repeat myself to imbeciles like you. Thanks for providing us with more inapplicable analogies having nothing to do with this debate. Your first two paragraphs were quite enough for me to decide the rest was a complete waste of my time.

@Mark:

Great points, loser. End of story.

Software companies (including Apple, and mine, for that matter) have taken to in-the-box printed EULAs or OK boxes to place additional terms beyond the UCC after the transaction. No court has yet ruled on software specifically, but no court has ever allowed a party to a contract to add terms after the transaction in any other context. Until software is granted such an exception, the UCC applies, and these are normal purchases, with the buyer entitled to all normal rights of personal property.

@Earless puppy

They shouldn't, any more than Ford should honor my warranty if I put an experimental carburetor in my car. If you jailbreak your phone, you take your chances. Those above rights should not come without responsibilities.

You say: You can do as you please with your iPhone, stove, vehicle, and computer because you PURCHASED them. But the jailbreak community didn’t PURCHASE Apple’s software to do with as they please and to pass it off as their own to use against Apple.

Do you realize that this is contradictory? On the one hand, you say that "you can do as you please with your iPhone … because you PURCHASED" it. But then you turn right around and say "But the jailbreak community didn't PURCHASE Apple's software". Of course they did. That's the only way to get an iPhone—to buy one. And then, by your own admission, then you can do whatever you want with it.

Nobody's trying to take Apple's software and pass it off as their own. Jailbreaking, at its core, is about developing new software with new capabilities—same as any old type of software development. Much of this software has to do with implementing capabilities that Apple did not implement on the iPhone: ssh, tethering, shell access, copy and paste. The difference is that the "kosher" way to get your app onto the iPhone requires you to go through Apple's approval process, so developers who want to develop software with capabilities that won't meet Apple's approval are forced to use this back door to get it onto the device.

Can you imagine the hue and cry you'd be raising if your computer manufacturer told you every app you installed on your computer had to be approved by them—whether the process was as arbitrary as Apple's or not? You'd be out in the streets: "I bought it, so I should be able to install whatever I like on it!" This is exactly the problem with the iPhone. Can you not see why this is a violation of the spirit of free enterprise?

You forget it's Apples software on the hardware you bought, if my hacked software destroys your hardware why should apple have to fix it...

But we also benefit from vigilantes. But anyone who defends murder is a fool.

I don't judge people jailbreaking their iPhones... or rolling through stop signs, or speeding through school zones. But to defend it's legality is just plain embarrassing and ignorant.

Your analogies are completely laughable, and you've completely missed the whole point of my comment.

You can do as you please with your iPhone, stove, vehicle, and computer because you PURCHASED them. But the jailbreak community didn't PURCHASE Apple's software to do with as they please and to pass it off as their own to use against Apple.

What planet are you on? You have no argument whatsoever.

I supposed it's pointless to argue with people who feel their own actions are justified despite our laws. I'm sure if we were arguing over drinking and driving, all of the drunk drivers would be here defending it.

If you buy a vehicle, you aren't restricted to the number of hours or the destination you can drive with it.

If you buy a computer, you aren't restricted to what can be installed on it.

Same should be with the iPhone. Nobody is stealing Apples work by jailbreaking so they can install apps that Apple hasn't approved.

Developing with the API and distributing it is in a sense your own. What you are doing is using a pre-defined set of tools made by Apple, and you use the tools in a certain fashion to get the result you want.

If everyone were to think the way you do, any website that gets made is not that persons property because they used PHP to make it.

Anyone who makes programs using Visual Studio to make VB or C# programs don't actually own it because they used something Microsoft made and are distributing it as their own.

Do you see how dumb that argument of yours is?

I think a legit company such as Apple has much right to patent and copyright everything they can for what they worked for. At the same time, they should really give more to the community (charities).

On the second hand, without hacking things there would have not been any advancement in the field of technology. WE ARE NOT in a world where metal just changes shape or software gets automatically faster so in order for that to happen, hacking needs to exist as well.

Depends. If people want to cover their iPhones with rhinestones, or spray paint them neon green, they have every right. But jailbreak developers are using (not buying) Apple's product to develop their own product and "re-selling" or giving away (apps) to the public as their own. They are making money off Apple's billions of dollars in investment and sweat.

I can buy GMs and do with them whatever I’d like, too. But I can't steal GMs, alter a few things, then re-sell them as my own brand of automobiles and take credit after GM spent billions creating 99% of the vehicles' design.

Are you guys saying I can spray paint iPhones green, then sell them as The Steve iPhone™? What's so complicated about seeing that these people are calling someone else's work their own, distributing it, while causing Apple financial losses?