NDL Forum

While the courts have been busy making decisions about digital rights, Washington has also been having its say on copyright law, at least as it relates to the iPhone and other handsets. Key new rules arrived Monday morning.

Most notably, the FCC has made the controversial practice of “jailbreaking” your iPhone — or any other cell phone — legal.

Jailbreaking — the practice of unlocking a phone (and particularly an iPhone) so it can be used on another network and/or run other applications than those approved by Apple — has technically been illegal for years. However, no one has been sued or prosecuted for the practice. (Apple does seriously frown on the practice, and jailbreaking your phone will still void your warranty.) It’s estimated that more than a million iPhone owners have jailbroken their handsets.

Apple fought hard against the legalization, arguing that jailbreaking was a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed, saying that jailbreaking merely enhanced the inter-operability of the phone, and was thus legitimate under fair-use rules.

The upshot is that now anyone can jailbreak or otherwise unlock any cell phone without fear of legal penalties, whether you want to install unsupported applications or switch to another cellular carrier. Cell phone companies are of course still free to make it difficult for you to do this — and your warranty will probably still be voided if you do — but at least you won’t be fined or imprisoned if you jailbreak a handset.

In addition to the jailbreaking exemption, the FCC announced a few oth er rules that have less sweeping applicability but are still significant:

• Professors, students and documentary filmmakers are now allowed, for “noncommercial” purposes, to break the copy protection measures on DVDs to be used in classroom or other not-for-profit environments. This doesn’t quite go so far as to grant you and me the right to copy a DVD so we can watch it in two rooms of the house, but it’s now only one step away.

• As was the topic in the GE ruling I wrote about, the FCC allows computer owners to bypass dongles if they are no longer in operation and can’t be replaced. Dongles are rarities in consumer technology products now, but industrial users are probably thrilled about this, as many go missing and are now impossible to obtain.

• Finally, people are now free to circumvent protection measures on video games — but, strangely, only to investigate and correct security flaws in those games. (Another oddity: Other computer software is not part of this ruling, just video games.)

cougnix wrote:Does anyone here use an iPhone on Verizon? Is it possible to jailbreak and use on Verizon? How would one do this?

brwnbear wrote:

cougnix wrote:Does anyone here use an iPhone on Verizon? Is it possible to jailbreak and use on Verizon? How would one do this?

I thought Verizon is on a completely different frequency, one that is not supported by the Iphone. I am pretty sure AT&T and T-Mobile share frequencies while Verizon and U.S. Cellular share different frequencies.

texasfan4444 wrote:

brwnbear wrote:

cougnix wrote:Does anyone here use an iPhone on Verizon? Is it possible to jailbreak and use on Verizon? How would one do this?

I thought Verizon is on a completely different frequency, one that is not supported by the Iphone. I am pretty sure AT&T and T-Mobile share frequencies while Verizon and U.S. Cellular share different frequencies.

You can "Unlock" an iphone and use it on other carriers. people have been doing it for years.

and BTW....Jailbreaking was never illegal. It was frowned upon. Like masturbating on an airplane. Thanks a lot Bin Laden.

DRiccio21 wrote:does anyone actually have a definite yes or no answer

can you jailbreak an iphone and use it on verizon?

The_Niddler wrote:iPhone cannot be used on a Verizon network.
These 2 carriers run off of a completely different network... ATT has GSM which is a sim card in your phone... VZW runs off of CDMA which has no sim card.

You can use an ATT phone on TMobile, but not on Verizon.

This is why ATT digital phones cannot roam and use a Verizon tower to gain signal.

DRiccio21 wrote:

The_Niddler wrote:iPhone cannot be used on a Verizon network.
These 2 carriers run off of a completely different network... ATT has GSM which is a sim card in your phone... VZW runs off of CDMA which has no sim card.

You can use an ATT phone on TMobile, but not on Verizon.

This is why ATT digital phones cannot roam and use a Verizon tower to gain signal.

heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy an answer! thanks man

NCSUholmey wrote:is there a jailbreak for the 4.0 software? I am running a 3G phone with the upgrade

shel311 wrote:

NCSUholmey wrote:is there a jailbreak for the 4.0 software? I am running a 3G phone with the upgrade

At least your 3G is running.

Mine is barely crawling.

Uuaww wrote:

shel311 wrote:

NCSUholmey wrote:is there a jailbreak for the 4.0 software? I am running a 3G phone with the upgrade

At least your 3G is running.

Mine is barely crawling.

How do you not have 3G coverage in the states? I have it on my damn island going strong.

NCSUholmey wrote:is there a jailbreak for the 4.0 software? I am running a 3G phone with the upgrade

sunspotiens wrote:

NCSUholmey wrote:is there a jailbreak for the 4.0 software? I am running a 3G phone with the upgrade

Yes, for both the 3G and the 3GS but you can't use it on the iPhone 4 yet. I've been hearing horror stories from a couple of my buddies that have the iPhone 3G running iOS 4...seems run ridiculously slow on that hardware, yet others are having no issues. I'm really waiting for a jailbreak for the iPhone 4 so I can customize my interface to look like I had it on my 3GS.

sunspotiens wrote:

NCSUholmey wrote:is there a jailbreak for the 4.0 software? I am running a 3G phone with the upgrade

Yes, for both the 3G and the 3GS but you can't use it on the iPhone 4 yet. I've been hearing horror stories from a couple of my buddies that have the iPhone 3G running iOS 4...seems run ridiculously slow on that hardware, yet others are having no issues. I'm really waiting for a jailbreak for the iPhone 4 so I can customize my interface to look like I had it on my 3GS.

sunspotiens wrote:I've been hearing horror stories from a couple of my buddies that have the iPhone 3G running iOS 4.