
Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime - there
https://jailbreakingisnotacrime.org/
======
jdietrich
This is why geeks should be required to run things past an English major
before talking to normal human beings.

If we call a thing "jailbreaking", we're going to be battling negative
perceptions forever. We're trying to explain to people who really don't care
that they should take time out of their day to help legalize something called
"jailbreaking". The RIAA, MPAA and ESA would struggle to dream up a more
dubious name if they were embarking on a spin campaign to criminalise it
outright.

Why couldn't we have called it "derestricting" or "liberating" or something?
Why couldn't we have chosen a positive, all-American sort of name? I know, I
know, these are our devices and we're having our freedoms taken from us, so
we're totally like POWs, not criminals. We're the good kind of escaped
prisoner. Now explain that to my mother in a few short words while Bill
O'Reilly accuses you of supporting Al-Qaeda.

For a bunch of geniuses, we do some really dumb things.

~~~
jerf
I'm not sure it's as bad as you think. The cell phone industry and the
carriers are the ones who built the jail, and the inmate is _you_. It is
probably worth making sure that nuance is communicated, but it's a powerful
image. If you're not a criminal, why are you in jail?

~~~
burgerbrain
The problem is that, to the uninformed, that information is not obvious from
the term.

~~~
stretchwithme
A friend of mine started working at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View. He was
working on a web app with his brother, who was actually in another country.

Shortly thereafter, he gets a very worried call from his brother, saying
"We've been hacked!" He saw a lot of traffic in the logs from an IP connected
with the word "Hacker" and got a bit panicked.

~~~
marcomonteiro
I'm a Hacker Dojo member, and I can relate. I check into the Dojo on Facebook
and I always have a few people who think I'm doing nefarious things like
"hacking" people's Facebook account. I've been pretty good about educating
people about what hacker's actually do, or at least this hacker so the
questions have gone down to a minimum as it seems they're bored with the
reality.

------
sehugg
Copyright "Czar" Victoria Espinel laid out a roadmap that includes:

 _Authorize DHS (including its component CBP) to share pre-seizure information
about, and samples of, products and devices with rightholders to help DHS to
determine whether the products are infringing or the devices are circumvention
devices_

[http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/15/concrete-steps-
con...](http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/15/concrete-steps-congress-can-
take-protect-americas-intellectual-property)

Basically, giving Hollywood veto rights on anything imported into the country
that can be used for jailbreaking. Sounds like we are in danger of losing DMCA
jailbreaking protections.

------
postfuturist
This is a basic freedom issue. The freedom to run software I control on
devices I own allows me to be free in how I share and protect my own private
information. Apple and Microsoft are trending toward making it more difficult
and less legal to run alternative operating systems or unapproved 3rd party
software on their platforms. It has to be fought tooth and nail. Fight it
legally, and fight it with your pocketbook.

~~~
stretchwithme
You also have the freedom to curtail your freedom when you sign a contract.

~~~
orangecat
Sure. An actual contract, not "by reading these words you agree to do whatever
I say".

~~~
stretchwithme
Of course. You have to accept in some fashion. You can't just put a contract
on a billboard.

------
yason
It should be a crime to produce things that can be "jailbroken" and call that
activity "jailbreaking" instead of fixing.

------
grannyg00se
I prefer buying devices that don't come with the proverbial handcuffs.

~~~
marcomonteiro
Like Android devices? I'm not trying to be sarcastic or snide either. I just
get a little tired of these arguments when it comes to smartphones and
tablets. Every modern smartphone and tablet that I know of comes with some
form of "proverbial handcuffs" to varying degrees. Whether it's jailbreaking
or rooting, there's no difference.

~~~
fpgeek
Official bootloader unlocks [1] are different and this is exactly why. If the
devices you care about have official unlocks, you're not personally affected
by this DMCA exception (no matter what you want to do to your device
software). If they don't, there's some DMCA-defined circumvention along the
way to some things you might want to do and you should pay close attention to
this particular rulemaking...

[1] Nexus devices, most Sony Ericsson phones, many HTC phones, soon to include
the ASUS Transformer Prime, ...

------
wavephorm
Jailbreaking does unlock a lot of functionality that should be in a PC. Being
able to SSH into the system and use unix tools opens a lot of possibilities.
Just being able to rsync music over wifi to my iPod and scrapping iTunes is
worth it.

Apple's underlying Darwin system works great on a mobile device. I don't own
an Android, but afaik it's underlying Linux system is not as robust as Darwin.
So where else do you go for a Linux/Unix based smartphone/tablet?

Where are the Linux tablets, and where is the support from the Linux community
for such hardware?

~~~
orangecat
_I don't own an Android, but afaik it's underlying Linux system is not as
robust as Darwin._

What are you basing that on? You can easily install Unix tools on Android
devices. Here's a complete development environment that doesn't even require
rooting:
[https://market.android.com/details?id=com.spartacusrex.spart...](https://market.android.com/details?id=com.spartacusrex.spartacuside)

~~~
wavephorm
I've had an impression that because of Android's abstractions you didn't have
the same "bare metal" access, such that scripting languages have to be run
inside a container app: <http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/>

~~~
guelo
Your impression is wrong, you can get access to the full Linux shell.

------
phzbOx
In theory, I agree. In practice, I've realized that most of the jailbreaking
phones/tablets are used to download illegal applications and/or without
paying. I know this is a somewhat contrived statement, but this is from what
I've seen in company/university/engineering departments I've worked/studied.

Note:

I myself had to jailbreak my iphone to install spotify (and asked a friend to
pay for it since he's outside of Canada). For some reasons, spotify is illegal
here. (Yes, I know, I illegally downloaded an illegal application to legally
download/listen to music).

~~~
SoftwareMaven
Even if 100% of the uses were illegal, this is an issue of principal. When I
buy a gadget, I didn't lease it, I bought it. It is mine. As such, I shouldn't
have to worry I might go to jail (!!) for modifying my device in a way that
doesn't impact anybody else.

~~~
stcredzero
_this is an issue of principal._

principle

