Ahoy, matey.It’s time to batten down the hatches, shiver me timbers, gather some wenches and wonder where all the rum has gone.Aside from the swash-buckling, high seas faring, Jack Sparrow look-a-like pirates, the term “pirate” has stretched into a newer, different meaning in the modern technology age.Have you ever decided you didn’t want to pay for a CD but just downloaded it anyway? Well, you’re a pirate.Ever decided you didn’t want to wait the five months for the movie to come out on DVD and just bootlegged it off some Internet site? Here’s your eye patch, matey — you’re a pirate.While the war between record and movie industries and Internet piracy has been an ongoing struggle for the past decade or two, these aren’t the pirates this column is focusing on today.
This one comes down to all those upset smartphone users who aren’t happy with the current settings or customization levels their handset offers out of the box, and decide to break through that pre-existing barrier to do some things to the phone the manufacturer may not have had in mind.”Jailbreaking” (iPhone) or “rooting” (Android/WebOS) your phone have become two popular terms as of late to open up your phone and do many more things with it.Android and WebOS are based on an open source operating system (OS) so the news of more control isn’t as big for phones running either OS. However, this is big news for those with an iPhone, in which Apple likes to control and maintain how their precious phone is handled.Jailbreaking allows users to install a new OS, download any application on their phone — whether it’s been approved by Apple or not — without paying Steve Jobs a penny. It can also allow for the tethering of other devices, optimize your processor to improve
performance and battery life and even allows the phone to become unlocked.Are you tired of owning an iPhone on AT&T’s unreliable network? By unlocking it, you can take your phone to any cellular provider you desire.Unfortunately, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998 has made it illegal for you to break Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions, even when it comes to devices you own.
Therefore, it’s been illegal for you to jailbreak your phone and technically Apple and other phone companies could sue these pirates under DMCA law.However, last Monday, Judge Emilio Garza of the 5th Circuit Appeals Court ruled in favor of the pirates — more or less.
The court’s decision stated that circumventing DRM on wireless communication devices to run third-party software, enabling functions not made available on the device as well as allow it to connect to networks the device was not intended by its manufacturer will now be allowed without any type of litigation worries from the manufacturer.
Basically this means it’s now legal to jailbreak your phone for the purpose of installing legally obtained software.It should be noted that while jailbreaking is now technically legal, it doesn’t mean you can walk into an Apple store and ask them to jailbreak your phone for you.The process will still void your warranty (unless you reset your phone to factory settings before bringing it back into the store) as well as, if done incorrectly, could ultimately “brick” your phone — causing it to become nothing more than an expensive paperweight.
While this seems like big news for those interested in this sort of practice, it won’t affect as many people as you may think.
Obviously it’s big enough news to make headlines on every tech website I read and for me to write a column about it, but the reality is hackers would continue jailbreaking phones and producing ROMs whether it were legal or not. Phone owners clever enough — or with a knowledgeable friend — will continue to break the phone manufacturers’ DRM maneuvers.
But with the knowledge of this practice being legal, we may find more iPhone owners straddling the fence on whether to crack their Jesus Phone open deciding to make the jump now that there are no ramifications.Also there’s the possibility of more ROMs, emulators and other third-party app stores around if more people decide to hack their handset.
I still haven’t had a chance to root my HTC Incredible — just because I know with my luck, I’ll screw it up.
I’ve always said a jailbroken iPhone is a scary powerful device. So this is a good opportunity for all you disgruntled iPhone owners to take advantage of the power of the handset because there is always the chance this ruling could get appealed to the Supreme Court and possibly overturned.
Just be careful if you try to break through your phone because you could easily send it down to Davey Jones’ locker.
–Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected]