The protection granted by U.S Copyright Office for users who change their iPhones and iOS devices in order to install applications not approved by Apple (also called “jailbreaking”) will expire soon. Without this protection many users with a jailbroken iOS device will face legal issues but currently, jailbreaking your Apple device will only void your device’s warranty. But organizations like EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) are making efforts to sign a petition for this law renewal.

“The idea that you might face criminal charges because you altered your own property is totally unfair,” said Rebecca Jeschke, media relations director and digital rights analyst for the EFF. “The goal here is to make the law really clear.”

Jailbreaking devices is useful to cover security issues or to install third-party apps which are not available for free in the AppStore. Most users prefer it generally for the freedom and customizability it provides. According to ReadWriteWeb, nearly 1 million users jailbroke their devices in a weekend, after the launch of the Absinthe A5 tool.

Apple released a software update last year for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2 and iPad, and the 3rd and 4th generations of the iPod Touch. Beside some improvements, the update also prevented users from jailbreaking the phone with JailBreakMe 3.0.

Do you think jailbreaking should be considered a violation of Apple’s rights or you believe that once you bought the product, you can do whatever you want with it?

Source: mashable