Ever since the original iPhone was introduced, third-party developers have discovered ways to add their own software to the device. They did this by jailbreaking the iPhone. Jailbreaking is basically hacking away at the code that Apple had installed on the device to prevent people from installing their own code on the device to enable such installations. A year after the release of the original iPhone, Apple launched iPhone software 2.0 with the launch of the iPhone 3G, which suddenly officially allowed approved applications offered via the Apple App Store to be run on the iPhone and iPod touch. Fortunately for Apple, all those developers who had jailbroken their iPhones and who had been hacking away at their devices already were nicely familiar with the workings of the iPhone, and as a result, a multitude of applications were quickly available via the official channels and many of the applications which many people had been using on their iPhones and iPod touches were suddenly available officially via the App Store. I have no doubts whatsoever that this factored greatly into the success of the App Store as a whole. Now Apple is making quite a bit of money off of their App Store and they, of course, want to protect that influx of money by preventing people from developing outside that framework.

However, dear Apple, making jailbreaking illegal is not the way to do this. The only way to correctly protect against this is to improve your code and to attempt to protect against jailbreaking internally. The onus is on you, as it has been on Sony who have been trying to prevent jailbreaking of the PSP for years through multiple firmware updates. Your move to make this a legal matter infringes upon our fair use rights, infringes upon the very idea of ownership guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the Bill of Rights, and is a great disservice to all of your customers that shows us entirely how little you think of us and our rights as consumers. I'm going to spend the rest of this column explaining why you should stay away from our rights or risk losing us all.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation makes a good point of discussing all the legal points and FUD surrounding the recent comments filed by Apple with the Copyright Office. I'm no lawyer, so I'll leave the legal discussion to the EFF. My point is that this shouldn't even be a legal matter.

If I buy a car, it is fully within my rights to open up the hood, change the oil, use whatever grade of fuel I want that is compatible despite the manufacturers recommendations, and even modify the car however I like. If I want to replace the engine in my car or install hydraulics and put 22-inch rims on the car so that I'm riding high, that is fully within my rights as owner of the car. I can also sell the car or take it to the dump. If I want to dismantle the entire thing and reweld it together as a large metal sculpture, I can also do that. Why? Because I paid for it and I own it. Ownership gives me those rights. I cannot, however, take it apart, discover how the car works, and begin manufacturing my own copy of the car, because at that point and time I am likely infringing upon multiple patents. I can, take it apart, discover how it works, and design some new component that will work with the car, and I can even sell that component to others.

I bought an iPhone. I'm not renting it. It's not on lease. I paid for the device in full and I now own it. I can do whatever I want with it. I can throw it out the window, smash it to bits, glue a handle to it, sell it on eBay, take it fully apart and attach the screen to some other device I purchased and try to make it work with that device. I can even crack it open and upgrade the hard drive in it, as some people are doing with hard drives in iPods now. Why? Because I paid for it and I own it. Ownership gives me those rights. I cannot, however, take it apart, figure out every bit of how it works, and design, manufacture, and sell duplicates of the device, or design, manufacture, and sell devices partially based on the design of the device, as that would infringe upon multiple patents. I can, however, take the iPhone apart, figure out how it works, and design cases, chargers, external battery packs, and car adapters that work with the device, and I can manufacture and sell these components to others. You can walk into any store that sells gadgets these days, even the Apple Store itself, and find multiple examples of such technology.

Now how is tinkering with the hardware any different than tinkering with the software in the device? Well the software is licensed and protected under copyright and the DMCA, to prevent people from copying it and installing it on other devices, and basically stealing the code, yes. However, as the EFF points out, the courts have on numerous occasions held that "copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software." Copying software for purposes of backing up that software, as when upgrading the internal hard drive to a new larger hard drive, is also perfectly legal. Apple is trying to implement bad law that infringes upon our rights to do with our purchased products as we please.

If Apple succeeds in this move, it will be shooting itself in the foot, stifling innovation by developers interested in its platform, and limiting the options of its consumers. I for one, will throw my iPhone out the window, smash it to bits, and switch to a more open platform, should Apple succeed in this move to infringe upon my rights. I doubt that I would be the only one.

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