Does this mean it’s not “jailbreaking” anymore? As mentioned in GMN, new government rules say that it’s legal to unlock phones like iPhones (although Apple is still within their rights to void warranties and disable unlocked phones with software updates) in order to install unapproved apps or switch data carriers. The new rules will also “allow college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break copy-protection measures on DVDs so they can embed clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos.”

The exceptions are a big victory for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which had urged the Library of Congress to legalize several of them, including the two regarding cell phones.

Jennifer Stisa Granick, EFF’s civil liberties director, said the rules are based on an important principle: Consumers should be allowed to use and modify the devices that they purchase the way they want. “If you bought it, you own it,” she said.

Amen—now let’s start in on e-books and other downloadable media, please. Gizmodo says that these new rules don’t matter much, and they’re probably right. A tiny percentage of the population is interested in unlocking their devices, but these rules do at least specify that the devices belong to the people who bought the devices.

5 replies on “You Can Legally Unlock Your Phones”

  1. How can Apple still be allowed to disable unlocked phones with software updates? If “I bought it, I own it,” why are they allowed to break it if they don’t like what I’ve done with it?

  2. I don’t care about installing random software, I just want to keep using my phone on T-Mobile and still be able to do OS updates.

  3. @Reymont: They don’t have to produce updates, as far as I know it isn’t part of what you bought, they just do it anyways. So if you want those free updates, they can set some conditions on that… “I bought it, I own it, hey would you still help me out for old times sake?” doesn’t fly…

    I’m hoping, (I don’t know for sure,) that you could jailbreak it and disable software updates. On the other hand, I have to wonder if Apple would actually stop people from jail breaking them. I don’t know the specifics of AT&T’s deal with them, but if they actually make money on handsets, it seems like they’d be fine with people jailbreaking them, allowing people to use them on other networks, but without Apple having to have a falling out with AT&T, but I don’t know for sure…

  4. @Matthew D – Sure, it would make sense that software updates would no longer work for you if you’ve changed your phone. But right now the software updates are actively malicious – if they detect that your phone has been jailbroken (?), it disables your phone. Bricks it, so that you can’t use it again and have to buy a new one. The article implies that they will be able to keep doing that, despite this new law.

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