Stealing Apps (jailbreaking) is now legal on your smartphone ...

If you jailbreak your iPhone you can?t be sued, but if you jailbreak your iPad, you can. Why the disparity?

Late last week the The US Copyright Office officially made it legal to jailbreak your smartphone, meaning you can put any software you want on it, download applications outside of the App Store, and bypass limitations imposed by your carrier.

The ruling is part of the new set of exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Smartphones are now exempt from the Act, but oddly enough, tablets are not. So if you jailbreak your iPhone you can?t be sued for violating the DMCA. But if you jailbreak your iPad, you can. Why the disparity?

The Copyright Office lists several reasons, but it mostly comes down to the fact that smartphones are more widely adopted, and the definition of a tablet computer is ?broad and ill-defined?. Critics are questioning this reasoning since tablets will most likely become widely adopted in just a short amount of time. ?There?s no logical reason why it should be legal to jailbreak an iPhone but illegal to jailbreak an iPad? writes Ars Technica. ?But because no one presented the Librarian of Congress with a sufficiently precise definition of ?tablet? ?this illogical result will be the law of the land for the next three years.?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), one of the organizations that has been pushing for revised exemptions to the DMCA, applauded the new ruling as a step in the right direction. EFF?s intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry explained:

The DMCA ?creates a cloud of legal uncertainty over American consumers ? whether they are tinkerers, artists, or just looking to make their gadgets work better?We?re pleased the Copyright Office renewed our smartphone jailbreaking exemption request, but we?re disappointed that it couldn?t see that consumers deserve the same rights for all the gadgets they own.

It?s likely that the Copyright Office will face pressure to expand exemptions to tablets and video game consoles for improving consumer protections. It?s becoming increasingly clear that when it comes to the relationship between technology and the law, definitions are the name of the game. From defining ?software? to ?tablet?? technologists and regulators continue to bump heads, perhaps, at the cost of the consumer.

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About Sona Makker

Sona Makker is a recent UC Berkeley grad with a B.A. in Sociology. She's especially interested in emerging issues at the nexus of technological innovation, access to information and data privacy. To satisfy her creative side, Sona loves to whip up new vegetarian dishes and enjoys all things crafty. Follow her on Twitter @sonamakker

Source: http://www.article-3.com/stealing-apps-jailbreaking-is-now-legal-on-your-smartphone-99804

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