The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is asking for your help to tell the U.S. Copyright Office that jailbreaking does not violate the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and its exemption should be continued and expanded.

In 2010, the Copyright Office said jailbreaking smartphones doesn’t violate the DMCA. This year, we’re asking them to renew that exemption (otherwise it will expire) and expand it to cover tablets. We’re also asking for a new exemption to allow jailbreaking of video game consoles.

The Library of Congress added the exception for jailbreak to the DMCA in July of 2010. Specifically:

Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

However, jailbreak was declared as an exclusion from the DMCA, and protection wasn’t actually hard coded into the act. That means the declaration could ultimately expire and leave jailbreakers subject to legal penalties.

If you’d like to help ensure this never happens, the EFF has advised you submit your opinion in comment form to the Copyright Office, and even offer a submission template with comment suggestions for your convenience. Comments are due by February 10th at 5PM, so make sure you submit your comments soon!

Souce: EFF

A new jailbreak mod by the name of H1Siri claims to allow a fully working port of Siri on the iPhone 4, but this one comes with a number of questionable aspects.

First of all, the package is available via a custom Cydia repo from a relatively unknown group of hackers that also houses pirated materials, so there’s a major warning sign right off the bat. The biggest drawback, however, is that the port uses a custom server to process requests on the back end instead of Apple’s own servers. In other words, you’ll be sending your personal information to who knows where without any assurance that you’re information will be kept safe.

Additionally, since this mod uses said custom servers that have apparently been hit pretty hard, there’s no telling when it will actually work for you. iDB tried to get it working without success shortly after it became available, and other users have reported issues with the Settings app not functioning properly along with sporadic reboots.

Previous attempts by prominent developers have proven successful, but those required access to a jailbroken iPhone 4S for Siri-specific files. According to developer chpwn, H1Siri also uses these copyrighted binaries from the iPhone 4S, so we’re guessing the legal implications surrounding this aren’t good.

Given the number of issues laden with this release, we’d caution you stay away until something more solid and sourced is available.

Source: iDB

For those who haven’t been following it, iPhone Jailbreaker George Hotz (Geohot) is being sued by Sony for hacking their PS3. It’s not new for companies to take action against hackers. Every time Apple updates iOS they try to close Jailbreak exploits and they even lobbied the US government to try and make sure Jailbreaking wasn’t granted a DMCA exception (Apple didn’t get their way and jailbreaking was given an exception.

While Apple went after the entire process and asked it be ruled illegal, Sony is going after one person in particular, George Hotz. After recently releasing his 3.55 jailbreak for Playstation 3 users, Sony rewarded his efforts by applying for a TRO (temporary restraining order), which was recently granted. As they continue to go back and forth, Geohot has issued a statement to Sony on his own webpage.

Note to Sony:

It’s apparent you don’t care about your reputation with consumers, and I can almost understand your point there. Few people consider buying a TV or laptop a moral choice, and the consumer base is quite large. But talented developers are in much shorter supply, and take it from one personally, who you choose to code for is much more of a moral choice. The programmers you will one day be looking to hire are the ones reading the tech news sites right now.

And they will remember.

I’m not sure what this means for iOS users at this point. If Sony succeeds in their case against Geohot, it’s unclear what if any precedents will be set in terms of other companies suing Jailbreakers. Also, whether or not Geohot will remain an active part of the jailbreak community is uncertain. Seeing as jailbreaking iOS is not illegal, I can’t image he would abandon both communities. One thing is clear, the case will definitely be interesting to follow. If Sony gets their way, will that lead to Apple starting a fire with our very own jailbreak community again? Or has Apple mellowed and Sony taken the lead in anti-community action? Sound off in the comments!

[Geohot]

Back in February we brought to you the story about Apple saying that Jailbreaking your iPhone is illegal. Granted that was in response the (Electronic Frontier Foundation), and their filing an exemption request for Jailbreaking iPhones. (See the AIPLA Quarterly Journal’s article on this from last week). Well this past Friday Apple’s head of marketing, Greg Joswiak, faced off against Fred von Lohmann, the EFF’s copyright guru and a plethora of Copyright Office officials. The topic? Jailbreaking…

The following is a little taste of what Apple had to say:

Apple is opposed to the proposed Class #1 exemption because it will destroy the technological protection of Apple’s key copyrighted computer programs in the iPhone™ device itself and of copyrighted content owned by Apple that plays on the iPhone, resulting in copyright infringement, potential damage to the device and other potential harmful physical effects, adverse effects on the functioning of the device, and breach of contract. The proponents of the exemption have also not satisfied their burden of proof of showing harm to non-infringing uses of the copyrighted works protected by the technological protection measures on the iPhone. In addition, because Congress has already explicitly addressed circumvention for interoperability in Section 1201(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),4 the Copyright Office should not create interoperability exemptions outside that statutory structure, at least without a clear showing of specific and significant harm, which has not been put forth here.

The way we see this is that Apple is against Jailbreaking for the simple fact that it can and will cost them money. Common sense will tell you that Apple does not get any money from iPhone users if they do not use the App Store for installing applications and they also run the risk of legit App Store apps being pirated, which we have already seen. So TiPb can see where Apple is coming from but at the end of the day, if you purchase an iPhone or any other device for that matter, it is yours to do with what ever you’d like.

For a complete rundown of all the shenanagins that took place this past Friday be sure to check out Wired.com’s Jailbreaking Showdown.

[Via Wired.com]

It is a sad day for our Jailbreak Pirate, so sad that he is even sporting a frown today. Apple has finally, after a full year plus, publicly came out saying that Jailbreaking the iPhone that you paid for is illegal. Does this mean the FBI will be knocking on Rene’s door to lock him up for Jailbreaking publicly over the internet???

[No, I'm Canadian, so all I have to fear is the red surge of the Mounties - Rene]

Read more after the break!

Apple states that Jailbreaking is a copyright infringement and is in clear violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The US Copyright Office has a rule-making session that occurs every three years for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This is also where exemption requests can be filed. Well it seems the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an exemption request for Jailbreaking iPhones. Apple has now responded to this request. You can see the complete filing here in this PDF file. If you don’t feel like reading all of that here is the important part:

Jailbreaking therefore involves infringing uses of the bootloader and OS, the copyrighted works that are protected by the TPMs being circumvented. Unauthorized derivative versions of the bootloader and OS have been created. Copies of those infringing works have been stored on web sites, and infringing reproductions of those works are created each time they are downloaded through Pwnage Tool and loaded onto the iPhone.33 In addition, as discussed in Section II.B.2 above, the jailbroken OS enables pirated copies of Apple copyrighted content and other third party content such as games and applications to play on the iPhone, resulting in further infringing uses of copyrighted works and diminished incentive to create those works in the first place. In sum, the jailbreaking of the iPhone that would be permitted by the proposed Class #1 exemption in 5A and 11A would result in infringing uses of copyrighted works. It would involve the creation, distribution, and copying of unauthorized modified versions of the bootloader and OS, and it would facilitate and encourage the making, distribution, and use of infringing copies of copyrighted material such as games and applications, owned by both Apple and third parties, that run only on jailbroken phones. The proposed exemption therefore does not satisfy the fundamental prerequisite of the statute that it aid “noninfringing uses” of copyrighted works and should be rejected.

It goes on and on but hopefully you get the idea. So what do you think? Will Apple now go after the Dev Team for their Jailbreaking software, QuickPWN and PWNage Tool? Lawyers will be the ones handling this one and it should be interesting to pay close attention to this.

[ViaGizmodo]