Jailbreaking is legal in the United States, but Apple says it violates the iOS EULA

Feb 6, 2013 09:54 GMT  ·  By

Apple has updated a not-so-friendly Support document on its site which says that “Unauthorized modification of iOS can cause instability, security vulnerabilities, shortened battery life, and other issues.” In other words, don’t jailbreak!

“This article is about adverse issues experienced by customers who have made unauthorized modifications to iOS (this hacking process is often called ‘jailbreaking’),” reads the documentation.

Apple proceeds to note that iOS and the entire range of iDevices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) are designed to work reliably together, adding that “Unauthorized modifications to iOS (‘jailbreaking’) can cause numerous issues to the hacked iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.”

The Cupertino giant dishes out examples like instability, security risks, shortened battery life, disruption of services, or the inability to apply future software updates.

“Apple strongly cautions against installing any software that hacks iOS,” it clearly states.

However, while some users might look the other way regarding the aforementioned quirks, there’s one aspect that they really should worry about: Apple might deny them service in case the device malfunctions, even under warranty.

“It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of iOS is a violation of iOS end-user license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software,” the company stresses.

With that in mind, customers should think long and hard before using a tool like evasi0n on their iPhones and iPads.

While jailbreaks are useful for testing and development purposes (which itself involves some risks), regular users who needn’t fiddle with code will always be regarded by Apple as rogue customers who chose to jailbreak simply to go against the rules, and perhaps download pirated software.

Admittedly, the iOS ecosystem is more closed than others (i.e. Android), which raises the incentive to break the shackles.