Good news for all iPhone fans who hate AT&T or Apple’s attempt to block certain apps… Jailbreaking is legal! On Monday, the FCC announced that jailbreaking cellphones including iPhones is perfectly legal. Now iPhone owners can legally use their phone on other networks, or download apps that are not approved by Apple.
Jailbreaking has been a common tactic for iPhone users for a few years now, but Apple has fought back by resetting jailbroken iPhones with their regular software updates.
The question that still remains is what does this all mean for iPhone users?
Freedom of Choice for Apps
Although it may still be against Apple’s terms of service, it will certainly be legal to download apps from third parties who did not make it into the iTunes store. Apple has been notorious for banning apps that compete with its own programs, or whose content is viewed as too risque. Although it is now legal, I highly doubt that a significant number of people will jump on this opportunity. Most people who want to do it probably never cared about Apple’s TOS or whether it was legal.
Freedom to Change Carriers
In America only AT&T offers the iPhone and you are required by Apple to stick with AT&T to use your iPhone. Theoretically you can now take a jailbroken iPhone to another carrier. The problem is most, if not all carriers probably will not allow it for two reasons. First, they don’t want to do anything that could result in a lawsuit, and since Apple and AT&T have an exclusivity contract, the two companies may take legal action against a carrier that allows iPhone usage. Second, other carriers probably don’t want to piss off Apple and risk never being able to sell the lucrative device.
Apple Can’t Take Legal Action Against You
They haven’t taken legal action against anyone yet, but it was always a fear among some jailbreakers. However they can still try to stop jailbreaking since it is against their terms of service, and unless they are required by law to change their terms, they probably will not.
The Big Picture
So what does this mean for consumers? Probably not much at all. What will change? Very little.
Does this ruling change how you use the iPhone or whether or not you will buy one? Discuss below.
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July 27th, 2010 on 3:15 pm
They just need to get a Verizon iPhone already… that doesn’t involve jail braeking.