Techdirt. Stories filed under "jailbreak"

Video Showcases The Many Perfectly Legitimate Reasons To Jailbreak A Device

Leigh Beadon — Tue, 3 Apr 2012 20:07:00 PDT

Anti-circumvention laws, which ban the tools used to do things like copy DVDs and jailbreak devices, make no sense. There are plenty of legitimate uses for these tools, so regulating them inevitably squashes legal activity alongside the infringing activity such regulation is supposed to target. Under the DMCA in the America, this problem is ostensibly addressed by the fact that the Librarian of Congress can exempt certain tools and activities from the anti-circumvention provision every three years—but this solution mostly serves to create bizarre double standards, such as the fact that it's perfectly legal to jailbreak an iPhone, but not an iPod. Meanwhile, Canada is on track to create similar restrictions with the impending passage of Bill C-11.

Proponents of these laws (read: the copyright industries) tend to brush off all concerns about legal activity. In their mind, there's only one reason to circumvent copy protections: piracy. Mario Dabek, editor-in-chief of the jailbreaking website Jailbreak Matrix, just released a video that nicely counters this narrow-minded concept by showcasing 100 reasons to jailbreak an iPhone. The video lists a huge variety of tweaks and customizations, both functional and aesthetic, that have nothing to do with copyright infringement and are only possible with a jailbroken phone (with the apparent cumulative effect of making a girl's tank top disappear).

While jailbreaking iPhones and other cellphones is legal in the U.S. thanks to the exemption process, it's easy to see how the same or similar tweaks should be permitted on virtually any device (especially the near-identical iPod touch, for which making any of these changes is still illegal). While there are a couple of ideas featured that flirt with infringement (using the Nintendo emulator would only be legal if you are playing games you own as cartridges) the vast majority of them are things you have should every right to do on a device that you purchased. Jailbreaking is not about piracy—it's about important rights of ownership, property and fair use that are all being curtailed by anti-circumvention laws.

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Judge Lets Sony Go After PS3 Jailbreaker's PayPal Account

Mike Masnick — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:33:59 PDT

Sony's ridiculous and over-aggressive lawsuit against George Hotz (Geohot) for jailbreaking the PS3 keeps reaching new absurd levels. The latest is that the magistrate judge, who seems to be rubber stamping most of Sony's requests, is allowing the company to subpoena Paypal for Geohot's account records. We've already discussed how she's allowing subpoenas for visitors to Geohot's website, as well as for whoever watched the YouTube video he put up about the jailbreak. Sony claims it needs access to his Paypal records to prove that people in California may have donated. They want that so that they can establish California as the proper jurisdiction for hearing the case. Frankly, this is ridiculous. First, who donated to Geohot should not be even remotely meaningful in determining the proper jurisdiction for the case. Where Hotz is located should outweigh any donor locations. Second, shouldn't the judge be somewhat concerned with the privacy aspects here? In giving up Geohot's Paypal info, isn't this exposing the info of anyone who might have donated, without them having the ability to stop it?

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Judge Says No Anonymity For Anyone Who Visited GeoHot's PS3 Hacking Website Or Watched YouTube Video

Mike Masnick — Fri, 4 Mar 2011 17:22:00 PST

In what seems like a very dangerous ruling, antithetical to basic anonymity rights, a magistrate judge has ruled that Sony can unmask anyone who visited GeoHot's website where he had posted the jailbreak data or who viewed the YouTube video that demonstrated the jailbreak for the PS3 that allowed PS3 owners to bring back a feature that Sony had killed off. This seems pretty extreme. Why is it okay to identify people just because they visited a website or watched a video? As the EFF noted, these subpoenas seem extremely broad, and it's disappointing that the judge signed off on them.

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Sony Continues To Attack PS3 Jailbreakers: Threatens To Cut Them Off From PlayStation Network

Mike Masnick — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:32:13 PST

It's difficult to fathom what folks at Sony's PlayStation group are thinking with their ongoing war against the jailbreaking of the PS3. People did this to replace features that Sony itself had promised -- but deleted -- and the company's response now is to go to war with its users. The latest is that the company is threatening to permanently block any jailbroken PS3 from the PlayStation Network. Yes, it's true that such jailbroken devices can also be used for unauthorized games, but Sony is simply jumping to a huge conclusion that anyone who jailbreaks a PS3 is doing that. Of course, all this is really doing is reminding a lot of people why they shouldn't by a PS3 or other Sony products in the future. Why pay for products where Sony can disable features that it promotes, and then cut you off from additional services if you try to re-enable those features. Who would ever trust that company again?

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Fake Sony PS3 VP Tricked Into Tweeting PS3 Security Key

Mike Masnick — Wed, 9 Feb 2011 13:13:00 PST

As Sony continues its quixotically backwards attempt to delete the PS3 jailbreak code from the world, it appears that they might want to start by informing their own ad firm not to tweet the code. As a whole bunch of you sent in, apparently a guy named Travis La Marr tweeted the PS3 security key at the Twitter account of "Kevin Butler," who describes himself as a VP at PlayStation. Of course, if you've seen any PS3 commercials, you would know that "Kevin Butler" is actually a made up person -- a character played by actor Jerry Lambert.

However, the Kevin Butler account, retweeted the code, trying to make a joke out of it -- clearly not realizing this is the code that Sony is trying to eradicate from all of the internet, as well as people's brains: The tweet has since been taken down and I imagine the folks at ad firm Deutsch/LA are scrambling to do some relationship repairing with Sony... Still, this really does highlight the ridiculousness of Sony's campaign to pretend such things don't exist. The more they try to deny it, the more people learn about it.

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Sony Demanding Identity Of Anyone Who Saw PS3 Jailbreak Video On YouTube

Mike Masnick — Tue, 8 Feb 2011 08:22:23 PST

Sony continues to massively overreact to the news that a hacker figured out how to "jailbreak" the PS3 in order to re-enable the functionality that Sony had deleted from PS3s. Beyond getting a far overreaching gag order on George Hotz, who figured out the jailbreak, and playing Whac-a-Mole to try to take down the code anywhere it appears, the company has now asked a judge to order Google to provide the IP addresses and other identifying info of anyone who viewed or commented on the video about the jailbreak that was hosted on a private YouTube page. The company is also promising to sue anyone who posts or distributes the code any further. Did Sony learn nothing from the AACS debacle? How long until we start seeing t-shirts, tattoos and URLs with the code? How long until it starts appearing in songs as well?

Every move that Sony makes to try to hide this code only further promotes that it's out there. And all of this accomplishes what, exactly? Why is Sony so hell bent on punishing everyone for daring to restore functionality that they thought had been included in a box they had bought? And why does Sony (who really should know better) think that this strategy will be effective this time, when every single time a company has reacted this way it has backfired in a big, bad way? It's as if the lawyers at Sony haven't noticed how the internet works.

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Sony Gets Restraining Order Against Guy Who Restored PS3 Feature Sony Deleted

Mike Masnick — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:37:00 PST

We've already noted the ridiculousness of the situation with copyright law today that makes jailbreaking your iPhone perfectly legal, but jailbreaking your computer gaming console potentially a jailable criminal offense. While some judges have noticed how ridiculous this is, it hasn't stopped console makers from going overboard.

Take, for example, Sony's reaction to a recent jailbreaking of the PS3. As you may recall, last year, Sony simply deleted a feature on the PS3 that would let users install alternative operating systems, such as Linux. This feature was used by operations such as the US Air Force to build supercomputers. Recently, a hacker by the name of George Hotz jailbroke the PS3 in order to let people bring back the "Other OS" feature that Sony had dumped.

Sony's response? To bring out the legal guns, get a restraining order against Hotz claim that he violated both the DMCA and the CFAA, and that "all circumvention technology" that Hotz used should be "impounded."

Hopefully Hotz is willing to fight this, and a court is willing to go beyond even what that last judge did, and point out that the laws, as currently written, go beyond what is Constitutional in blocking the way people can make use of their own hardware.

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