Jailbreaking your iPhone and ripping DVDs: Both now perfectly legal
Under a list of just-handed-down exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it is no longer illegal to jailbreak your phone or to circumvent a DVD’s Content Scramble System for the purpose of copying portions of its content. Every three years, the Library of Congress examines copyright law in order to suggest revisions; today’s DMCA amendments are some of the biggest yet. The U.S. Copyright Office’s decision makes it possible for anyone to, say, jailbreak their iPhone in order to run “unauthorized” software or use another service provider besides AT&T, and effectively does away with Apple’s ability to threaten those who jailbreak their phones with legal action. Of course, it doesn’t mean that jailbreaking has been officially sanctioned: Apple is still well within its rights to void your warranty, and you definitely shouldn’t expect tech support to help you through the process. It just means they can’t sue you for doing it, which is always nice to hear.