The US Govenment has reviewed the DMCA (Digital Milennium Copyright Act) and added a few more exemptions to it. Most notably:
iPhone owners are officially allowed to “jailbreak” their iPhones for “educational purposes.”
What is an educational purpose? Who knows, and seriously who cares? It’s on the books that it’s ok to do and that is really all that is needed.
Now mind you the government is not saying that Apple has to warrantee your iPhone if you “jailbreak” it, and something goes wrong. Just that the act of “jailbreaking” will not get you sued, or tossed in the click. Does anyone use that term anymore? The Clink?
Other notable but less interesting exemptions added, include:
You may bypass video game copy protection to investigate or correct security flaws.
You may break copy protection on DVDs if you are a college professor, film student, or documentary film maker for the purpose of embedding clips for educational purposes, criticism, or use in non-commercial video.
You may bypass the use of external dongles if the dongle no longer works.
And they extended the 2006 cellphone unlock exemption which allows you to take your phone from one carrier to another. (this only works if the carriers are using the same technology).
Wow, look at that, the government can do something right.
Actually, as Christa Warren points out in the linked Mashable article the video exemption will be huge. Think of all the “documentary film makers” and “film students” that will now be allowed to post video mashups using commercial DVD clips to You Tube for purposes of education or critism.
I think the people in charge of the DMCA takedown notices at You Tube must be having a heck of a party today. :)
…
