Jailbreaking now illegal for Tablets and E-Book Readers

[Prestidigitweeze]

You're probably right: I gave up trying to warn people to avoid the cliff and now appear to be backseat-driving the car.

In the meantime, Ninjalawer, what, if anything, do you think can be done about these new restrictions?

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

This thread:

[shenye]

The US Copyright Office is unable to define the category of tablets. I get that. Only, who is supposed to answer the question when a phone becomes a tablet or when a tablet becomes a phone?

[wizwor]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

What I'm not quite understanding is this: how wizwor's advocacy of lobbying for the return of cable bandwidth to the government is an embrace of crypto-capitalism. It sounds to me like an action which condemns deregulation -- not because of the involvement of the consumer, but because the result would be to reclaim once-public property (i.e., cable bandwidth).

...

But I don't think wizwor is saying that buying power is a substitute for regulation and government-agency monitoring. I think he's implying that buying power can help to create momentum for regulation in the otherwise profit-Wild West.

I do see how his telling us all to buy antennas could be seen in that light, but I didn't take it that way.

I'm opposed to the return of the bandwidth. If the government is not going to regulate the airwaves, then I guess I can put up an antenna and broadcast. We decided this was not a good idea and imposed regulation. It's kind of like requiring people to drive in the right lane -- freedom is surrendered for the greater good.

The people advocating for return of bandwidth are beneficiaries of the return because 1) they have plans for the bandwidth, and 2) they compete with those who currently use the bandwidth.

Right now, cable companies are paying to retransmit local stations. If OTA goes away, they can charge to host the content. PLUS everyone who wants TV has to choose among pay providers who have historically fought competition (franchise agreements).

I'm not a hater of Big Government, I'm an advocate of Good Government. Big Government created IP protection; Good Government created Fair Use. I'm generally opposed to IP protection. More so when the Big Government that created it exempts itself from it.

This fork of the topic began when I suggested that we not support companies that do not voluntarily sell/license products with consumer friendly terms. In this age of crowdsourcing, it's possible to produce entertainment without the support of production, promotion, and distribution infrastructure. Logically, this should lead to more innovation, lower costs, and more choice.

Unfortunately, powerful people have a stake in stifling this. Fortunately, they are losing.

[shenye]

Originally Posted by wizwor

Unfortunately, powerful people have a stake in stifling this. Fortunately, they are losing.

In the long-run, perhaps. In the short-run, they had just another victory. If I am not allowed to decide for myself what operation system I run on my tablet, then I consider this a severe and unjustified restriction on my individual personal freedom. In fact, I am deeply distressed because all of a sudden my hobby is turned into a potentially criminal act.

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by Katie1

The name JAILBREAKING should give folks an idea that it IS ILLEGAL!

I wish the goverment would work on removing Porn (...) more dangerous

BWAHAHAHAHAH
Dangerous porn!?
You didn't reall mean it, did you?

[shenye]

Funny that with "jailbreaking" most people refer to the iPhone or the iPad, whereas Android users usually prefer to use the term "rooting" for the process.

[wizwor]

Originally Posted by shenye

In the long-run, perhaps. In the short-run, they had just another victory. If I am not allowed to decide for myself what operation system I run on my tablet, then I consider this a severe and unjustified restriction on my individual personal freedom.

What you can decide is to buy another tablet or phone. Since we do not depend on Apple and Samsung to bring us Chinese products, we can get purchase 'open' products if we are willing to forego the service subsidies and cool logos.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by crich70

Another problem with this is the fact of how many people do such just for their own use. I mean take the ripping of DVD's for use on someone's own computer for example. If they decide to arrest and lock up everyone who does that they'll have a serious problem. The jails will be so full of offenders that the real criminals (murderers, bank robbers, embezzelers, etc.) won't have anywhere to sleep.

Yes, but they also won't have anyone to commit crimes against because the normal victims will all be safe in prison...

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by crich70

The jails will be so full of offenders that the real criminals (murderers, bank robbers, embezzelers, etc.) won't have anywhere to sleep.

Then they might find out the true meaning of "jailbreaking".

[cvkemp]

You need to read this the US copyright office says that if you buy it you own it and should have the right to do what you wish.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10...ma_exemptions/

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by shenye

Funny that with "jailbreaking" most people refer to the iPhone or the iPad, whereas Android users usually prefer to use the term "rooting" for the process.

The point with android devices is that what you do is actually acquiring access to the root user account on the underlying Linux system. The technical description is insofar precisely correct.
As I don't know if iOS incorporates an unixoid user account and file permission system it might as well be plainly wrong to speak about rooting there.

[shenye]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

The point with android devices is that what you do is actually acquiring access to the root user account on the underlying Linux system. The technical description is insofar precisely correct.
As I don't know if iOS incorporates an unixoid user account and file permission system it might as well be plainly wrong to speak about rooting there.

Thanks, this makes more sense now.

[bhartman36]

Maybe I'm missing it, but I can't imagine this will affect Kindles (e-Ink or the Fires). I mean, the code is there for anyone to mess with. They have to distribute it under the open source license it's under, right? You're not actually breaking any encryption scheme when you root.

Am I way off-base here?

[qlob]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

Maybe I'm missing it, but I can't imagine this will affect Kindles (e-Ink or the Fires). I mean, the code is there for anyone to mess with. They have to distribute it under the open source license it's under, right? You're not actually breaking any encryption scheme when you root.
Am I way off-base here?

Only the open source programs they modified are distributed, not the source to the entire OS.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by qlob

Only the open source programs they modified are distributed, not the source to the entire OS.

Oh, okay. I was under the impression the only thing the Fire added was the launcher. I thought they took Android, turned off some services, and added the Launcher. Guess not.