US govt legalises iPhone 'jailbreaking'
Following a ruling by the US Library of Congress, iPhone owners can legally unlock their devices and use applications not authorised by Apple.
The Library of Congress said that jailbreaking doesn’t violate copyright protections but Apple said exempting jailbreaking would “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.”
Apple spokeswoman, Natalie Harrison, said (via Bloomberg), “Apple’s goal has always been to ensure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience.”
Harrison pointed out that jailbreaking your iPhone could still violate the warranty.
“As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”
You can read the full decision affecting iPhones and other smartphones on the agency’s website.
In other iPhone news, it was announced this morning that iPhone 4 will be available this Friday from $1099 inc GST.
