'Jailbreaking is Not a Crime' - Bunnie and EFF Letter Options

[Xbox-Scene]

'Jailbreaking is Not a Crime' - Bunnie and EFF Letter Posted by XanTium | January 26 20:49 EST | News Category: Xbox360

Andrew (bunnie) Huang (to people who were around during the Xbox1 days, I don't have to tell who he is ...) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation posted an open letter you can sign to the (US) Copyright Office to renew the DMCA jailbreak-exemption for smartphones (which will expire soon) and extend it to all electronic 'gadgets' (like tablets, and ... videogame consoles): [QUOTE] You bought it. You own it. Tell the Copyright Office: let me install whatever software I want on my phone, tablet, or video game system. Dear Ms. Pallante, Whether it's patching a security vulnerability or homebrewing video games and apps, people who own smart phones, tablets, and video game systems are finding inventive ways to use and improve their devices. Often users need to gain full administrative access, through a process known as "jailbreaking," to innovate and take advantage of the device's full potential. But right now, jailbreaking a device can lead to legal threats. That's a vulnerability in the law: we need you to create a "patch" so users who jailbreak devices won't be at legal risk. Three years ago, the Copyright Office agreed to create an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act so that folks could jailbreak their smartphones. But that exemption is about to expire. We need you to renew that exemption and expand it to cover jailbreaking gadgets with similar computation potential. These are all siblings to the PC, yet unlocking their potential as versatile and powerful computers is burdened with legal murkiness. 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. Jailbreaking is helping to make technology better, more secure, and more flexible. Please defend the rights of users. Thanks for enabling us to keep technology innovative, secure, and focused on the users. [/QUOTE] If you agree, sign the letter over at: jailbreakingisnotacrime.org

[DARKFiB3R]

Twitter links to front page story are broken.

[XanTium]

thx, fixed that.

[Jbasto]

Site is down

[XanTium]

yea, I think there's a bit too much traffic to it ... it was down earlier too. It was up again when I posted the news, but now it seems down again. Try again in a few mins or hours, it'll come back!

[DARKFiB3R]

"renew the DMCA jailbreak-exemption for smartphones (which will expire soon)"

Seems like only 5 minutes ago, that the exemption was made in the first place. How long has it been, really?

This post has been edited by DARKFiB3R: Jan 27 2012, 04:28 AM

[XanTium]

it was in 2010 for 3 years.

edited: it wasn't 2yrs, but 3.

[steveo1978]

yea, I think there's a bit too much traffic to it ... it was down earlier too. It was up again when I posted the news, but now it seems down again. Try again in a few mins or hours, it'll come back!

When I first saw your avatar I told some one else had stolen it, then looked at your name and was like " wholly crap its Xant" lol.


Now to on topic: I hope this does go through for the simple fact that it might encourage more people to get involved in the modding community.

[BoNg420]

Not like people need to jailbreak a phone to pirate apps, on android you dont have to be rooted to get paid apps for free. On iOS I dont know anything about it, so can't say. Maybe for tethering, but if you are already paying for data service,then they shouldnt charge you to tether no matter how you are using it through the device.

[tomgreen99200]

The website is still down but I would love to sign it. I love my iPhone 4 (iOS 5 - untethered) jailbreak and would love to see the law extended to cover other devices like game consoles.

Jailbreaking is all about homebrew for me. I love adding new features to my phone that otherwise would never be allowed. This isn't any different than the xbox1 days(xbmc), JTAG, or RHG.

Jailbreaking most definitely advances technology / innovation.

[Aldanga]

When I first saw your avatar I told some one else had stolen it, then looked at your name and was like " wholly crap its Xant" lol.

LOL. I thought exactly the same thing.

I wish we could move away from the ridiculous notion of intellectual "property". If the Internet has shown us anything, it's that without intellectual property creativity only increases; people are more free to utilize previous works of others, and this enables them to advance things more quickly.

/my $0.02

[tomgreen99200]

LOL. I thought exactly the same thing.

I wish we could move away from the ridiculous notion of intellectual "property". If the Internet has shown us anything, it's that without intellectual property creativity only increases; people are more free to utilize previous works of others, and this enables them to advance things more quickly.

/my $0.02

I agree. Here is a good read on the topic. http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/inte...gainstfinal.htm

[BoNg420]

LOL. I thought exactly the same thing.

I wish we could move away from the ridiculous notion of intellectual "property". If the Internet has shown us anything, it's that without intellectual property creativity only increases; people are more free to utilize previous works of others, and this enables them to advance things more quickly.

/my $0.02

Yea look at Apple suing all Android phone makers now. HTC Samsung and Motorola all being hit with suits from Apple to attempt to end or block sales of their device. The funny thing was one was with samsung because they claimed that it looked like the Ipad and would confuse consumers. I mean its like apple copyrighted the rounded corner rectangle? Consumers aren't stupid. They know one box and product is labeled samsung and one says apple... Then after these $100 million lawsuits are done and over with the cost is passed onto the consumer and that is why apple products are all way overpriced. Like their iphones are all priced close to android phones, but full price is ridiculous and is usually $100-200 priced higher then android phones, but you can get them for around $200-300 on 2 year... The funny thing is you can get a 32gb ipad or 32gb iphone for $750, but you would expect that the larger product would cost way more... Then their PCs and laptops are way overpriced because you can get the windows PC or laptop with equivalent hardware for like $300-800 cheaper. When people want to buy Apple, they know what Apple is. When they want Samsung, they know what product is samsung and so on. This is purely abuse of the patent system with all these frivolous lawsuits flying around. I just mention apple so much because I have seen lots of news recently because they are back and forth with samsung and moto. The whole point is not because a company made a similar product to you and ripped off everything about it, the patents are bland and worded to try to sneakingly get broader coverage of what the patent is actually covering.

[tomgreen99200]

[Aldanga]

I agree. Here is a good read on the topic. http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/inte...gainstfinal.htm

Here is another resource for others interested (one which I've linked from here before): Against Intellectual Property