Library of Congress updates DCMA, jailbreaking/rooting is officially 'legal'

[Shmooze]

Tell me I'm not the only one who sees the phallic object in that chain

 

[ivan_411]

Awww, so you mean I'm not breaking the law anymore?
Well, atleast I felt like a badass these last couple of weeks that I rooted

 

[ChugIt]

It didn't take a clarification by anyone for me to know this anyways. If it ever came down to something happening to my phone(s) from rooting I would have sued THEM (VZW or Motorola or both) for pushing an update or something that bricked my rooted phone. You are allowed to alter, destroy, make a sandwich out of anything you buy. That would be like Chevy suing you for putting a sunroof in your Impala that didn't come with one. I didn't root to feel "cool" or be a "rebel" or anything, I rooted so I could customize my phone to look and feel how I wanted it to. This is absolutely no different than people customizing vehicles, homes or clothing. Were there actually seriously people out there that thought they were breaking the law by rooting their phone? LoL

 

[Larry Mahnken]

I knew that some people would immediately misinterpret this.

All that it says is that you have the right to hack the phone that you own.

It does not say that rooting cannot void your warranty. It can. It always will. You have the right to take a baseball bat to your big-screen TV, too. But it still voids your warranty.

It does not say that manufacturers cannot make it difficult (if not impossible) to root your phone, or install a custom ROM. It will NEVER be interepreted that way.

What it says is that if you're willing to void your warranty and risk bricking the device, you can do whatever you want with it, so long as you're not doing something otherwise illegal. It's your property. Play away. The manufacturer cannot sue you for doing it.

 

[Larry Mahnken]

It didn't take a clarification by anyone for me to know this anyways. If it ever came down to something happening to my phone(s) from rooting I would have sued THEM (VZW or Motorola or both) for pushing an update or something that bricked my rooted phone. You are allowed to alter, destroy, make a sandwich out of anything you buy. That would be like Chevy suing you for putting a sunroof in your Impala that didn't come with one. I didn't root to feel "cool" or be a "rebel" or anything, I rooted so I could customize my phone to look and feel how I wanted it to. This is absolutely no different than people customizing vehicles, homes or clothing. Were there actually seriously people out there that thought they were breaking the law by rooting their phone? LoL

Yes. The people who manufactured the device.

Corporations like control. It helps to increase profits.

 

[ChugIt]

I didn't see anyone say anything about it NOT voiding the warranty so far.

 

[HarshReality]

All I can say is NOW its on..

 

[ChugIt]

I don't see how this ruling changes anything whatsoever for any of us, but whatever.

 

[Dan_08]

Glad it's "allowed" now, but what advantages does a company have by locking it's devices? Seems most of us like the droid because we can root.

 

[antron007]

Yes I agree. Rooting still violates your warranty and/or contract. And though rooting is legal, depending on the details of your contract, violating that contract could be considered illegal.

I doubt any company would waste the money on such a case but the law is all about technicalities and contract violations can technically be illegal. Especially if there is a clause in the contract that specifically states that violation is punishable by law.

You can confess to murder and go to jail even if you didn't do it and sighing a contract with such a clause would essentially be what you'd be doing if you violate that contact.

All extreme situations sure but, true none the less. Contracts supersede law in most cases. That's why they make them. To keep things from becoming a legal debate.

Just felt opinionated today. Sorry for ranting.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[pigpen]

But can I take motorola to court for hindering my right to root my phone since they have locked the bootloader. I feel my right to root is being violated.........well....droid x users rights are being violated (i dnt have a droid x lol).

I seriously doubt it. Just because something is legal doesn't mean you have a RIGHT to do it. More directly, it's unlikely to be illegal to prevent you from doing something you have the legal right to do (i.e. dress code in a restaurant).

Now, if they did a software update that did something screwy to rooters, there might be an issue. But otherwise you buy the product as is so you have no right/claim to capability not represented.

An different interpretation of this would be like the TOS agreement that you get with most of the ISP's that supply our home internet access. Built into the different TOS agreements, is a clause that says you are not allowed to run servers on their networks.( IE mail servers, ftp servers, torrent servers). These are services that cost additional money, a different TOS agreement and a completely different network set up usually.

On most networks, they want you to use their supplied router, but you can walk into any bestbuy today and usually buy a replacement modem to one you are currently using, or try a different a one to give you more ethernet ports, or more software enhancements, or flash your own firewall onto it to administer yourself. But if you start messing with their network services,(running an ftp server on a cable network or tethering excessively) and deny some other users the ability to use their paid services also the way they're entitled to use them, the ISP's take immediate action. Throttle your bandwidth and threaten you with termination for violating the agreement.

We all use the root access to set up the phones the way we like, the way they look and the way they run. Alot of us also use software that isn't condoned by verizon such as tethering as much as some of us do and other network services that arent present on the phone or the CONTRACT when we buy the phone, and that threatens their stable network. ( IE: AT&T with their sorry ass excuse of not enough bandwidth for all to go around)

So i dont think it gives us the right to go after them on a locked down device even though we outright own our devices as much is it removes their right to go after us for tinkering with the hardware we purchased. We sign contracts when we purchase, and thats what they expect from the user. Not to abuse their service. It all comes down to the service, not the device we bought.

 

[linkboy]

Wife just told me this, wow, Steve Jobs must be pissed.

 

[LatinaC09]

hey it's our right to do what we want with our phones. we paid for them and continue to pay a monthly bill, it's only fair that we can use these phones to their fullest capabilities.

 

[NVash]

It may be legal now but Apple is still going to be a pain about jailbreaking iPhones and iTouches. Watch, itll still void the warranty just to get on everyones nerves.

Anybody have any idea why this was legalized?

 

[nateccnn]

Your title needs to be changed. This ruling came from Library of Congress. It states that jailbreaking does not violate copywrite laws. It does not state that jailbreaking is legal. Legality is not within the Library of Congress' scope.

Nate