Could it soon be illegal to jailbreak or root a device in the US?
You may not know this but it might become illegal to jailbreak or root a device as the exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is set to expire soon. It’s currently perfectly legal to jailbreak an Apple device, or root an Android device, as long as you are willing to kiss your warranty goodbye in most cases. However the exemption to the DMCA does not currently cover the iPad or gaming consoles, meaning that it is currently illegal to jailbreak an iPad or an Xbox 360.
I am 100% on the side of being able to root or jailbreak my devices whenever I feel like it. I would not currently have an Android tablet if not for the developers at CyanogenMod. Instead I would have an expensive paper weight because that’s about all webOS is good for right now. I could show you all kinds of statistics from CyanogenMod for Android or from the Absinthe Apple jailbreak tool that would show you that there are millions of other people that agree with me. There is a huge community of developers who make a living off this section of the handheld market. All of that could be in jeopardy if something isn’t done before the exemption expires.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation says “The Copyright Office needs to hear from people who depend on the ability to jailbreak to write, use, and/or tinker with independent software (from useful apps to essential security fixes) for smartphones, tablets, and game consoles.” If you wish to submit comments you can do so at this link. All comments must be received by February 10 at 5pm Eastern Time.
[Tom’s Guide]
