EFF asks mobile device vendors to stop opposing jailbreaking

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked the U.S. Copyright Office to exempt tablet and video game console jailbreaking from Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provisions and asked vendors to stop opposing the practice.

Jailbreaking, also known as rooting or chip modding, depending on the device it takes place on, refers to the bypassing of restrictions built in by manufacturers to prevent the installation of unauthorized software. All popular platforms, whether it's Apple's iOS, Sony's PS3, Microsoft's Xbox or Google's Android, have strong jailbreaking communities built around them with independent developers often releasing innovative content that enhances the user experience. However, most manufacturers discourage this software freedom-of-choice philosophy and often use legal and technological means to prevent jailbreaking from becoming widespread. EFF's efforts to get jailbreaking added to the list of DMCA exemptions began three years ago and resulted in a ruling from the U.S. Copyright Office clarifying that bypassing iPhone protections in order to run so-called homebrew software is not a violation of copyright laws.