The 2010 ruling made by the Copyright Office which excluded jailbreaking devices from persecution under the DMCA is set to expire soon, an event that could prove extremely damaging to how you use the devices you own and even websites like The Powerbase. If jailbreaking becomes a criminal offense, than sites which talk about it or guide you through the process are equally liable. The outlawing of jailbreaking would be like the SOPA/PIPA of hardware: it’s something we all need to make sure doesn’t happen.

What’s jailbreaking?

It’s not just for the iPhone, if that’s what your thinking. While the term became popular (at least to the current generation) when hackers like George “geohot” Hotz worked on removing the limitations placed on the iPhone in terms of what carriers it could run on, the act of jailbreaking is better described as modifying the software your device runs in a way contrary to what the manufacturer intended or wanted.

Smartphones, tablets, and video game consoles are powerful computers with lots of untapped potential. Yet many of these devices are set up to run only software that’s been approved by the manufacturer.  Modifying a device to run independent software – known as jailbreaking – is important to programmers, enthusiasts, and users.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

There’s a pretty good chance that, if you are reading this site, you’re probably “guilty” of jailbreaking in some form or another. Presumably you don’t want to go to prison, so you should probably pay attention here.

What needs to be done?

In the eyes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Andrew “bunnie” Huang, it’s not enough to simply make sure this exemption doesn’t lapse; it needs to be amended to better reflect the changes in technology since 2010. The original exemption covered only smartphones, leaving other devices such as game consoles and tablets out in the open. With tablets becoming more and more popular, and with a number of high profile raids and arrests regarding game console jailbreaking devices having already occurred, it’s clear these devices need the same protections that our phones have been enjoying for the last few years.

It’s not all about overclocking our phones or installing emulators on our game consoles, there is a legitimate need for individuals such as security researchers to have complete access to their hardware. If rooting Android devices was illegal, we probably still wouldn’t know about Carrier IQ, and even if we did, it would be illegal to remove it. By making it illegal to modify the software on our devices, we are not only loosing the freedom to use our hardware in however way we see fit, but we also run the risk of being railroaded into ever more intrusive invasions to our privacy. If we can’t see what’s happening on our hardware, much less control it, how can we defend ourselves?

Speak Up, Be Heard

Now is the time to make sure we don’t lose the basic freedoms we deserve when we hand over our money for a piece of hardware. If you buy a house you’re able to put an addition on it, and if you buy a car you’re allowed to modify it’s engine, so why should a phone, tablet, or game console be any different?

Fill out the following form to have your voice be heard by the Copyright Office:

https://www.jailbreakingisnotacrime.org/

The EFF gives some very good tips on what kind of things you should mention when writing in your comment:

• What’s your background (user, developer, hobbyist, researcher, etc)?
• What device do you want to ensure you have the legal authority to jailbreak?
• Explain why you want to jailbreak this device? What limitations do you face if you aren’t able to jailbreak it?
• If you’re a developer, did an online application store or console manufacturer reject your app or game?

By putting in information like this, we can send a clear message to the Copyright Office that there are a number of real-world reasons why we need the ability to have complete control over the devices we purchase.