iPad Jailbreaking is Illegal?

[f4780y]

I have not been keeping up with the Geohot case. I do wish him well.

If Geohot is to stay away from PS3 devices, then apparently nothing has been setteled. It is still likely "illegal" in Sony's eyes.

Can anyone provide further information?

Bob

The case is quite different from jailbreaking. Sony reacted to George because he published on his website and via twitter the master encryption key for the PS3. Sony's argument, which could possibly have been won if it had gone all the way through the courts, is that this was their IP and should not have been publicly distributed outside the confines of the PS3 console. I can kind of see the argument... Ironically he would probably have been in less trouble if he had just realised a working jailbreak.

Where the sony / geohot argument is relevant to our scene because of the Comex iPad2 4.3 "JB". Comex will be in EXACTLY the same situation if he was to publish or distribute a JB which uses code which infringes Apples' copyright. All the existing JB tools DO NOT do this, hence their "legality".

 

[f4780y]

OK. If the point being made is iPads are not mentioned because they were not invented when the concessions were make, it is a fair point. But I don't think it is reasonable to infer that it makes iPad jailbreaking illegal. There can be no difinitive answer unless Apple were to test it in court, but that would seem ridiculous as the new class of device runs a sufficiently similar OS and uses sufficently similar techniques for DRM as the existing class of devices which are exempt. That would be my take.

 

[bat0nas]

But why Comex didn't release it's JB (even if it was not legal) anonymously?

If he knew that it's no legal (based on some stolen code; don't know what that means), he could still release it under whatever name.

Community would benefit from it because:
1. Others could continue development on what he started.
2. We would have a working JB now.

Why this Comex JB hasn't been released?

 

[Gazzaho]

Yeah..And because Sony won the case is why psn is down. Some other hackers took offense and launched an all out blitz on psn...and now going on 7days that psn is down will cost them millions if not billions. They are rewriting the entire system.

I've no idea if what you say here is true or not, but if it is then it would seem, other corporations need to be very careful of using the brute force, large pockets and expensive lawyers approach to deal with problems. Sony are going to lose a lot of revenue from the PSN attack, I myself will never trust its security again, they say credit card details may/may not be compromised, fair enough, the fact it took them a week to inform me of this is, in my opinion unforgivable, I knew PSN was down but found out from the BBC news app on my iPad the day before I got an email from Sony regarding the serious nature of the problem!

Sorry for the rant and wandering off topic, but as I stated, Apple, Microsoft and others need to learn from the PSN mess. It would appear people with the skills, may now have a way of fighting back against the heavies if pushed.

 

[Kabona]

Yeah..And because Sony won the case is why psn is down. Some other hackers took offense and launched an all out blitz on psn...and now going on 7days that psn is down will cost them millions if not billions. They are rewriting the entire system.

Sony didnt win anything..... The case was settled and both sides left the court satisfied. Funny how easy false information gets around.

http://www.nag.co.za/2011/04/sony-versus-geohot-case-settled/ <--------- read about it if u want

 

[f4780y]

But why Comex didn't release it's JB (even if it was not legal) anonymously?

If he knew that it's no legal (based on some stolen code; don't know what that means), he could still release it under whatever name.

Community would benefit from it because:
1. Others could continue development on what he started.
2. We would have a working JB now.

Why this Comex JB hasn't been released?

If you have to ask those questions, then you are not a part of the same jailbreaking community I have been a part of for the last 4 years.

 

[Kabona]

But why Comex didn't release it's JB (even if it was not legal) anonymously?

If he knew that it's no legal (based on some stolen code; don't know what that means), he could still release it under whatever name.

Community would benefit from it because:
1. Others could continue development on what he started.
2. We would have a working JB now.

Why this Comex JB hasn't been released?

comex does something that none of us can do...and u expect him not to want credit for it? He would be a very humble person if he released it to us anonymously. At the end of the day im sure the dev teams want the creidt for the jailbreak or else none would have a reputation


Thats my thoughts at least

 

[graywolf]

I have been wanting to play online with ps3 forever now. It is good though that hackers can kind of keep an eye on Sony. If sony is pushing geohot around for something perfectly ok, then they need to fight back. Though i dont agree with taking credit card info. I just don't get why apple and Sony don't open up the ps3 and idevices so they can do more. I really wanted to install another os on my ps3. But no! Sony had to take it away! I know some idiot is going to hit me with "but you can do illegal stuff with a jailbroken ps3". That's whoever the person who is doing it's problem. If they get caught, they get thrown in jail. Easy. So, people are going to hack anyway, so just let them! I didn't pay $500 for an iPad just to do basic stuff my el-cheapo verizon phone can do. I bought an iPad as a computer replacement. So I jailbroke to make iPad a computer. I haven't touched my laptop in a year except to jailbreak. Apple could really advertise the iPad as touch screen Mac book air. MacBook air and iPad are VERY similar. So, apple can just allow the iPad to do things such as downloading from safari, tethering to any phone, and even simple things like what Barrel does to springboard. Apple really would sell more iPads if they let them do more. So, everybody wins!

I didn't mean to type an essay, but that's what I think.

 

[Bob Maxey]

Yeah..And because Sony won the case is why psn is down. Some other hackers took offense and launched an all out blitz on psn...and now going on 7days that psn is down will cost them millions if not billions. They are rewriting the entire system.

Sony didnt win anything..... The case was settled and both sides left the court satisfied. Funny how easy false information gets around.

Sony versus GeoHot case settled | NAG Online <--------- read about it if u want

Here is what I see:

1- Sony won, George lost, and we lost, because we still do not know if any copyright laws were violated. Someone care to provide a technical link to the inner workings of Geohot's cracks? The terms of the settlement are sealed until they are released by someone at some point, which almost always seems to happen.

2- The article said this: "The analyst is convinced that Sony’s award of a permanent injunction against Hotz will send a clear message to other hackers: “I’m confident that most hackers will see the potential for litigation – and the costs involved – as a deterrent, at least in those countries that have laws respecting intellectual property rights.â€

I think Sony's position is we will crush you if you do something we do not like. This is fair if they have a case and unfair if someone does something legal that Sony simply dislikes.

The problem is so many people post things on the Internet, there is no fixed idea of fairless and legality. People simply do not know the law and many tens of thousands violate the law. Take a day and read the copyright law, trademark laws, and the DMCA laws, rulings, etc. I have, and it is a real bear.

3- The genie is out as are the things George did. And there will be more hacks arriving just to tick off Sony.

4- We here could face the same problems from Apple. I think large corporations can do lots of damage if they flex their muscles and that is sad. If George was clearly wrong, he should be taken to task.

Bob