Jailbreaking exemption law may expire in February

Owners of jailbroken iPhones, iPads and other iOS devices risk losing the protection granted by the United States Copyright Office by February - unless they band together to seek an extension.

 

Tech site Mashable reported this prompted the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to gather signatures for a petition to renew the jailbreaking exemption law.

 

“The idea that you might face criminal charges because you altered your own property is totally unfair. The goal here is to make the law really clear,” it quoted Rebecca Jeschke, media relations director and digital rights analyst for the EFF, as saying.

 

In 2009, the Copyright Office created an exemption to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to protect users of jailbroken phones from legal threats.

 

It was the EEF that sought the initial jailbreaking exemption.

 

Jailbreaking is a process that modifies the device's software to let it download and run apps not officially approved by Apple.

 

Without this the Copyright Office's protection, owners of jailbroken iOS devices may face legal action.

 

This year, EEF called anew on users of jailbroken devices to send their comments to the Copyright Office to lobby for the exemption's extension.

 

But this time, the EFF also sought the inclusion of tablets and video game consoles in the exemption.

 

"We need these exemptions to conduct security research on devices to help safeguard everyday users from security threats. Furthermore, users of these products benefit from the flexibility to choose their own operating systems and run independently developed software. We need the law to catch up with how people are using technology," EFF said (https://www.jailbreakingisnotacrime.org/).

 

"Jailbreaking is helping to make technology better, more secure, and more flexible. Please defend the rights of users," it added. — TJD, GMA News