Library of Congress changes copyright

[rebelconservative]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-26/apple-iphone-users-have-u-s-blessing-to-jailbreak-add-own-applications.html

"Owners of Apple Inc.’s iPhone can unlock the device to use applications not authorized by the company, the U.S. Library of Congress said."

"The Library of Congress also said in the filing posted today that people don’t violate the law when they circumvent copy protection on DVDs and extract short excerpts to create new, noncommercial works."

[Selfish28]

Companies are going to start to require an internet connection to even operate some of their products soon.

[DavidOdden]

A propos the title of the thread, do you have any evidence that LOC is changing copyright law?

[Andrew Grathwohl]

That isn't changing copyright. Jailbreaking your smartphone is a perfectly legitimate use of your property. Copyright law doesn't (and shouldn't) limit the consumer's ability to use purchased hardware/software as long as this use is legal. The reason why jailbreaking, game console modding, and other such actions are perfectly legal and not touched by copyright is because it is the actions you commit AFTER doing these things that could potentially be violating copyright law. The ability to modify your own property is your right. If you're an Apple smart-device user, then you most likely agreed to not jailbreak your device when registering your product - but that would be an issue entirely separate from copyright law.

Now, if you happen to jailbreak your smartphone for the purposes of not having to pay for a company's SDK, or to get free applications for the device that you would otherwise have to pay for, then those resultant actions would be illegal, and copyright law already clearly stipulates this. But merely the action of jailbreaking your smartphone is not, and should not, be illegal, and the Library of Congress was right to make this decision.

Edited July 27, 2010 by Andrew Grathwohl