Thursday, February 19, 2009

iPhone Jailbreaking, EFF, and DMCA

This post was taken from thebigboss.org written by BigBoss himself. It sheds some light on the recent submission of documents from Apple to identify "Jailbreaking" as copyright infringement.




iPhone Jailbreaking, EFF, and DMCA


Author:
BigBoss  //  Category: Development, Jailbreak


As you read this, keep in mind that I am not a lawyer and do not give legal advice.


There has been a lot of news surrounding the legality of iPhone jailbreaking. It started when the EFF announced that it plans to add iPhone jailbreaking as a DMCA exception. (http://www.eff.org/action/free-your-phone). After this, Apple made an announcement that they consider jailbreaking to be a copyright infringement (http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/apple-says-jailbreaking-illegal). So what’s really going on?


The DMCA has a set of exemptions that are reviewed every three years. This year is the year where these exemptions are reviewed and also when new exemptions are added. The EFF is pushing to have jailbreaking added to the exemption list. By adding this, it basically says “jailbreaking your iPhone is legal”. Remember, not having it in there does not say that jailbreaking is illegal. It simply doesn’t say. For example, there is no US Law that says “clothes shopping is legal”. But there is no reason to think it is not legal either. The EFF is pushing to add an exemption so that jailbreaking is actually called out as legal.


The original exemption requests can be found here:

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/comments/lohmann-fred.pdf

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/comments/lohmann-fred-summary.pdf


A month after the exemption requests were made, the responses were due. These can be found here:


http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/responses/


There are responses from a number of people for 5A from a number of end users and small businesses the obvious players: EFF and Apple. A few people who are definitely interested in this problem for other reasons (VOIP): Virgin Mobile and Skype. Mozilla also chimed in with a rather short document.


Skylar wrote an interesting article on this here: http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147164


And the NYTimes has an interesting article on it here: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0…our-iphone/?em



Continue Reading ..>>





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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Jailbreaking illegal? Get outta here!!!!

It looks like Apple is taking a stance to get the PR machine rolling to denounce jailbreaking your iPhone. News broke yesterday (February 13th, 2009) that Apple has submitted documents to the US Copyright Office stating that jailbreaking our iPhones is DMCA violation and copyright infringement, which essentially makes it illegal. This was posted on the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Apple is saying that 3rd party apps, such as those available through Cydia and Installer require modified versions of Apple’s software which in turn constitutes infringement on copyrights. Here’s a blurb from the EFF website on this matter:

As part of the 2009 DMCA rule making, EFF has asked the Copyright Office to recognize an exemption to the DMCA to permit jailbreaking in order to allow iPhone owners to use their phones with applications that are not available from Apple’s store (e.g., turn-by-turn directions, using the iPhone camera for video, laptop tethering).

Apple’s copyright infringement claim starts with the observation that jailbroken iPhones depend on modified versions of Apple’s bootloader and operating system software. True enough — we said as much in our technical white paper describing the jailbreak process. But the courts have long recognized that copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software, a body of law that Apple conveniently fails to mention.


So does this mean the moment you jailbreak your iPhone, a representative of Apple will show up at your doorsteps with the newest iTaser? Sure, Apple claims it’s illegal to jailbreak but there is no way they can control what you do in your own home. Unless they somehow can detect jailbroken software and somehow lock your iPhone using the internet, but of course that is highly unlikely.

So if you want to jailbreak your iPhone, just find a dark corner in your room, turn off the lights and don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Are you scared yet?

Click here to get a pdf copy of submitted document.

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/responses/apple-inc-31.pdf



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Dual-Screen Concept Cell Phone

This post is not iPhone related but I found it too interesting not to share. Take a look at this concept cell phone you may see in the near future:

Alloy Total Product Design has come up with The Polygon, a cool new concept phone.

This one seems to resemble the Nintendo DS in terms of design, and while at times a bit too similar, the whole dual screen nature of the casing seems to go very well with the cellphone. A portable phone is supposed to provide the user with a quick, convenient and efficient way to make calls on the go, and this concept works quite well on The Polygon. While obviously not going to be released in the very near future, The Polygon provides hope for constant innovation in the cellphone industry.



The Polygon consists of two screens, one a touchscreen and one a regular display. The regular display is supposed to be very high resolution, and quite large. This is because most of the data that you will be viewing will be shown here. If you wish to watch television, or browse the net, this is the screen that'll display all of the video and pictures. The second screen is sensitive to the touch, and is thus a lot more durable. This is the screen used for navigation of the various features and media available on The Polygon.

The traditional physical keypad won't appear here, and will be replaced by a virtual one that's displayed on the touchscreen. Both portrait and landscape modes should be available on the phone.












This concept phone is proof that every cellphone design hasn't been tried out just yet. With sliders, smartphones and super slim phones, it seems like there's no room for any new designs, and yet Alloy Total Product Design has thought of just this. The Polygon surely looks and functions like a futuristic phone, and should especially get some love from fans of Nintendo's handheld. Let's hope that a company realizes the potential of such a slick looking device, and actually builds a retail model.



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Saturday, February 7, 2009

How to get .ipa files on your iPhone 3G 2.2.1

This is an update to the post "How to get .ipa files on your iPhone 3G 2.2" posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009. You can find the post in the Blog Archive.

Launch Cydia, select Manage at the bottom of the screen, select Sources, select edit (top right hand corner), select add (top left hand corner) and add this source http://iphone.org.hk/apt/. Once added, select the new source and do a search for mobileinstallation. You will find a patch that looks like this:



Follow the remaining instructions found under "How to get .ipa files on your iPhone 3G 2.2" posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Stay iTuned!!!!!




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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Unlock vs. Jailbreak

I've come upon a lot of posts on a lot of different sites asking about "unlocking" and "jailbreaking" and a lot of people are confusing the two terms. So here is a brief explanation that should clear things up.

Unlocking your iPhone is done so that you may use any SIM Card from any service provider on a GSM network, truly making it a world phone. iPhones typically are "locked" to a specific network by the service provider you buy your iPhone from. To unlock your iPhone, the iPhone Dev-Team have a program called "Yellowsn0w" To find info on this and instructions on how to unlock go here: http://yellowsn0w.com/

Jailbreaking your iPhone frees it so that 3rd party apps, games, themes etc... can be used on your iPhone. This will allow personal customization and use outside of the restrictions Apple has put in place. Thus, an iPhone "Jailbreak". Instructions on how to Jailbreak are posted in the Blog Archive under "How to Jailbreak your iPhone 3G 2.2" posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009. If you have Firmware 2.2.1 then go to the post in the Blog Archive under "**UPDATE** 2.2.1 Firmware Jailbreak" posted on Friday, January 30, 2009.

Hope that clears up the confusion!

Stay iTuned for more to come!

Monday, February 2, 2009

***Important*** Update to January 30th Post re: 2.2.1 Firmware Jailbreak

We have a new update on the 2.2.1 Firmware Jailbreak info and tools from the iPhone Dev-Team. I have revised and updated the January 30th post concerning this. You can click **UPDATE** 2.2.1 Firmware Jailbreak found on the right hand side in the Blog Archive. Even if you have read the post before, I highly recommend you read it again, again and yet again before downloading and using anything. A big THANK YOU goes out to the iPhone Dev-Team for there much appreciated work!