Jailbreaking Phones: Now Fair Use!

Filed in archive Mobility , News , Technology on July 26, 2010

Jailbreaking Phones

With the revision of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), people can now legally bypass DVD encryption, mobile phone carrier locks, and do so much more.

According to the Library of Congress there are six cases where copy protection circumvention does not infringe on copyright:

• Taking short clips from DVDs for education, documentary filmmaking, and noncommercial videos.


• When "jailbreaking" software is used to install third-party applications on mobile phones "where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset."


• When using firmware or software to unlock phones from a particular wireless carrier.


• When testing for, investigating and correcting security flaws.


• When the security dongle is malfunctioning or obsolete.


• When all e-books are blocked from screen readers or e-reader read aloud functions, and no digital edition is available with such accessibility features.

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