While a recent ruling by a judge regarding the DMCA might seem like big news to the mobile modding community, Apple’s reaction is pretty tame. They recently released a statement that maintains the status quo: basically, they’re aware that we jailbreak our iPhones, they didn’t react to it back then, and they aren’t going to start now.
When a judge rules that skirting around the built-in DRM (Digital Rights Management) of the stuff you already own is legally legal (at least in the United States), that’s significant news. As long as you do it for legal, non-copyright infringing purposes, of course. For everyday geeks at least, that means it’s now perfectly legal to jailbreak your own iPhone to run whatever app or hack you need and have it unlocked to use it on any carrier that suits you best. The new legislation details other things you can do (you can check out the full details of the new DMCA legislation here), but that last part is particularly sweet. It always seemed silly that you couldn’t do certain things with your own stuff.
As for ripping and copying your own CDs and DVDs for personal use just so you don’t scratch your originals (a common practice that has always been considered illegal), apparently, it’s still illegal to do that. Not that it ever stopped you. Or anyone else with common sense.
