[ APPLE ] Jailbreaking is for Drug Dealers, Mightily Slays Networks

[Kyle Matthews]

A few months back, Apple made a plea to the Copyright Office to make jailbreaking illegal. The EFF called their reasoning "absurd" and "FUD." It's still sitting before them to make a decision.

Apparently, Apple feels they are in a losing battle and are now throwing out some pretty far-fetched reasons to the Copyright Office in order to back up their case. For one, they say jailbreaking could let users alter the Exclusive Chip Identification number, letting the jailbreaker make anonymous calls. They say "this would be desirable to drug dealers."

In further claims, they say jailbreaking could lead to cell towers or networks being taken down Hacks to the baseband processor (BBP) would mean “a local or international hacker could potentially initiate commands (such as a denial of service attack) that could crash the tower software, rendering the tower entirely inoperable to process calls or transmit data... taking control of the BBP software would be much the equivalent of getting inside the firewall of a corporate computer — to potentially catastrophic result."

Or maybe... Apple enjoys the success of the AppStore, and doesn't want anyone else encroaching on that market. The Cydia Store, Rock Your Phone, and various other non-AppStore sales methods are appearing, and gaining in popularity. If the AppStore is no longer the ONLY way to vend your app, theme (try getting one of THOSE from the AppStore), or tweak, Apple stands to lose some of that valued income. And therein lies the real issue.

I recently bought Coda for my Mac. Panic makes great software. When I bought this... I just used Safari. I went to their website, I downloaded the app, and I paid them through their own payment system. I didn't have to go to an Apple store. I didn't have to open iTunes to buy my Mac software. In fact, Apple wasn't involved in any way at all other than creating a beautiful piece of hardware and a slick operating system which my copy of Coda runs on. Can you imagine the outrage if you could NEVER buy (or get freely) any software for your Mac except through iTunes? Control...

And guess what? Professional hackers could, using only a Mac connected to the internet, gain access to all sorts of high-level secure sites, and wreak who knows what havoc. Does that mean all software for every Mac should go through Apple?

What all this "jailbreaking is illegal" nonsense comes down to is Apple attempting to maintain their absolute control on all software for the iPhone - which is flat out insulting. This doesn't fly with any other device... why should it with iPhone?

Wired

(thanks to all who sent this in)

[gomer713]

the ability to jail-break has kept them many iPhone customers. I don't see why they are trying to stop this. it's inevitable

[ianbroste]

"this would be desireable to drug dealers" haha try to make jailbreaking sound as far fetched and terrible as possible.

[leandrogw]

Ridiculous how apple thinks sometime. This only shows that jailbreaking tickles them a lot! they just don't get the big picture. They made a one-of-a-kind small computer that is very easy to carry... And still, they are afraid of loosing the apps portion of the market.

Come on Apple take advantage of jailbreaking and sell more iPhones.

PS: I don't do drugs. LOL

[Melech518]

This is Funny:
Apple coincidentally called me this morning. I had an ad on craigslist miami advertising free help for unlocking and jailbreaking with a pretty picture of an iPhone. Apple called to request I remove their picture at once because it was infringing upon their intellectual property rights. I immediately, for fun, asked to get to the highest person at Apple I could speak with. The "supervisor" wanted to tell me "not only are you using a graphic from Apple.com, but you are also advertising to jailbreak and unlock iPhones for free". I told him," wait a minute buddy, we both know jailbreaking/unlocking are not illegal, no matter how hard you try to make it illegal, and do not abide to copyright infringement". His response to that, "Yeah I know its not illegal but we dont like it....."

[xjakex]

the ability to jail-break has kept them many iPhone customers. I don't see why they are trying to stop this. it's inevitable

Exactly! I would have never jumped over to ATT, even for the iPhone.

[Saied]

these ppl r so ******* stupid...drug dealers could do tht with any other unlocked fone...the mobile substrate can be re built for practically any smart phone...tht apple wuz smarter than that...thats a very low attempt...i think they r gettin desperate 2 eradicate jailbreakers

[Eurisko]

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Everyone loves to pick on big bad Apple, without whom the iPhone would not exist.

[Renblade]

I wouldn't even be able to use my iPhone if it wasn't for jailbreaking it! ...and Ultrasn0w of course!

[imilad]

I love the iPhone, but honestly without the jailbreak the phone is not as fun.

[xxfr0stbytexx]

yea if it wasnt for jailbreakin i wuldnt have tha iphone, its tha only thing tht makes em good. apple is to power hungry and needs to relax like said before a lot more ppl buy iphone for jailbreakin

[nateman360]

I mostly bought my iphone to jailbreak it. Why not? You get more out of the the the little $300 gadget. Its like buying a ferrari without a seat, wouldnt you buy a seat for it to get the most out of it?

[Kyle Matthews]

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Everyone loves to pick on big bad Apple, without whom the iPhone would not exist.

On the same thought, creating a product does not give you the right to control the software market for it and restrict any competition for it.

[robbpell]

this is absurd i know lots of drug dealers and not all of them jailbreak there iphones hahaha jj

[Dutch]

Wasent apple founded by hackers and a captian crunch whistle?

[vedavis]

I have no interest in bringing down the world. I have no interest in using cracked apps. I use AT&T minutes as equally as Skype over WiFi. And I have more AppStore apps than JB apps. And I pay/contribute for every JB app I use regularly. Let them take my jailbroken iPhone from my cold, dead hands.

[chris4851]

I love listening to this case, it makes Apple look ridiculous. What I picture is Apple laying on the floor kicking and screaming because individual users are one step ahead and are taking money away from them.

Whether Jailbreaking becomes illegal or not this will still do nothing for us. Am I going to get pulled over for speeding and the officer asks for my iPhone and arrests me for a Jailbroken phone? Will AT&T/Apple call the police if I get my Jailbroken phone replaced? NO neither of this will happen, only certain applications will be removed. This will still not stop the great Cydia program from operating. GO AHEAD APPLE... can't wait for you to loose this case and then loose your App store developers.

[Empyrials]

I love listening to this case, it makes Apple look ridiculous. What I picture is Apple laying on the floor kicking and screaming because individual users are one step ahead and are taking money away from them.

Whether Jailbreaking becomes illegal or not this will still do nothing for us. Am I going to get pulled over for speeding and the officer asks for my iPhone and arrests me for a Jailbroken phone? Will AT&T/Apple call the police if I get my Jailbroken phone replaced? NO neither of this will happen, only certain applications will be removed. This will still not stop the great Cydia program from operating. GO AHEAD APPLE... can't wait for you to loose this case and then loose your App store developers.

couldn't agree more lol. I love the iphone so for the next some odd years i'll be using it legally or illegally, i don't care. Things like this just make you want to tell apple to f off... but then again i like their phone so i wont

[PhoneLine]

Wow, I guess the Discovery channel special I saw about the different ways the world will come to its end had it wrong. The real threat here is the iPhone, not the nukes or this global warming hogwash.

[DanJan]

drug dealing just to get byyyy..