Jailbreakme

Thanks to a recent Library of Congress ruling, JailbreakMe is back in business. The popular tool, which lets owners of Apple electronic devices run apps not approved by Apple, had disappeared until the library approved a series of new exceptions to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The DMCA extends copyright law into cyberspace by allowing creators of intellectual property to use digital means to prevent the unauthorized use of copyrighted material. The Library of Congress, which oversees the Copyright Office, periodically reviews and allows exemptions in order to keep the law from restricting non-infringing uses of copyrighted works.

Apple Inc. maintains that "jailbreaking" -- the unlocking of electronic devices so that they can run software not authorized by their manufacturers -- is an unauthorized modification of its copyrighted software. Prior to the Library of Congress' July 25 ruling, jailbreaking occupied a legal gray area; the ruling makes clear that the practice does not infringe on copyrights.

JailbreakMe Back in Business
As a result, the creators of the Apple unlocking software have returned to the Web as JailbreakMe 2.0. Where the original JailbreakMe program worked only on iPhones, the new version works on any Apple device running the iOS, including iPods and iPads. To use it, simply visit the website using your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and follow the instructions to install the software.

The Library of Congress' ruling brings the United States in line with most of the rest of the world, where mobile device owners have been able to use software tools to free their smartphones to work on any carrier's system. JailbreakMe makes this possible for the iPhone. Regardless of the Library of Congress ruling, Apple still uses software updates to disable jailbroken iPhones and maintains that jailbreaking can make iPhones unstable and unreliable. Jailbreaking could also void the warranty on the iPhone.

Apple's approach stands in stark contrast to that of Google, developer of the Android operating system. While Apple allows iPhone and iPod touch users to use only approved applications available through the iTunes App Store, users of Android-equipped phones can run any application written for the system, including apps not available through the Android Market. Several manufacturers make Android phones, which taken together outsell the iPhone.