You can’t argue with effective lobbying.
Per Macworld UK, the United States government, at the request of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has announced an inquiry that could lead to a blanket exemption to the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) for activities that all under the Fair Use doctrine of U.S. copyright law. As such, public comments have been invited until February 10th.
This announcement, and subsequent change in DCMA enforcement policy, has wide-ranging implications for consumers of electronic devices and media. As it applies to the on-going battle between Apple and iPhone hackers, the new rules stipulate that Apple may not actively prevent attempts to “Jailbreak” the iPhone to allow extra functionality with either hardware or software measures.
Beyond the iPhone, the new DCMA exemptions allow academics to legally break DVD copy-protection to use films clips in the classroom, users to remove software and hardware security measures that are no longer supported by the publisher or manufacturer, and legalizes the investigation and correction of software flaws by third-parties.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
One reply on “iPhone jailbreaking could be ruled as “fair use” in U.S., government invites public comments until February 10th (updated)”
Um, the President doesn’t get to declare what is “fair use”. That is for a judge to decide. All he can do is direct federal prosecutors to not prosecute people who have jailbroken their phones.
And don’t forget, it’s still illegal to provide those tools to somebody else. You have to jailbreak your own phone entirely on your own.