On July 26, 2010, U.S. Government declared that jailbreaking of iPhone is legal.
The regulators said that there is no reason to allow Apple to use the copyright law to protect its business model.
This is a big win for app producers who develop softwares for jailbreaking iPhones or provide jailbreaking software for iPhone users. Earlier, such app producers had to live under constant fear of being sued by Apple.
Though Apple could also sue iPhone users or force users not to jailbreak iPhone for it breaches the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) it never sued anyone till date.
This exemption would severely hurt Apple and other handset makers who use their proprietary software. It is a big loss for Apple for it heavily depends on its closed business system.
On the consumers’ side, jailbreaking an iPhone would violate Apple the contract signed by the user. Which means, by jailbreaking, the iPhone user would lose his/her warranty. Another most important thing is if you are not a tech savvy person, you should not try jailbreak iPhone because it would affect the OS and would eventually render your phone useless and Apple would not repair your phone for you breached the contract.
The regulator now also allowed users to unlock their iPhones. Other exemptions that have been passed by the regulators are- allow the cracking of the digital rights management controls of video games to look for security flaws, allowing the breaking of DVD encryption by educators, students and documentary movie makers to use clips for educational purpose and commentary, allow visually-challenged people to circumvent locks on e-books to enable read-aloud features and bypass “broken or irreplaceable dongles.”
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