New exemptions to take effect on Sunday in the United States

Oct 26, 2012 21:31 GMT  ·  By

A decision by the U.S. Librarian of Congress, which grants certain exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, has extended the legality of iPhone jailbreaks, but made the act of hacking an iPad illegal.

That’s right. You can download the latest PwnageTool / Redsn0w / GreenPois0n and hack the bits out of your Apple smartphone and no one will ask you a thing. Try to do the same with your iPad, and you might get a pat on the shoulder from the long arm of the law.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) addressed the U.S Copyright Office in July of 2012, stressing that “Jailbreaking enables the installation and execution of pirated -- i.e., unlicensed -- apps on a mobile device.”

The BSA, of which Apple is a member, pointed out that “there is a direct link between piracy and the circumvention of TPMs [technological protection measures], -- jailbreaking is the precondition for making pirated apps valuable.”

Apple opposes to all types of jailbreaking, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) contested the aforementioned arguments in a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office, explaining that such hacking leads to creative customization apps more often than to piracy.

“There are many legitimate, non-infringing reasons why a user might choose to jailbreak or root a device,” the group said shortly after the BSA had submitted their letter.

“These reasons range from installing non-infringing applications that happen to be unapproved by the device's vendor, to customizing a device's appearance, to transforming a phone into a flashlight,” said the BSA.

In analyzing the EFF’s plea, the Copyright Office concluded that tablets should not fall in the same category, therefore they would not qualify for the same exemption, according to IT World.

iPads bear "significant distinctions,” the Office said, “in terms of the way they operate, their intended purposes, and the nature of the applications they can accommodate.”