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Apple puts the frighteners on jailbreakers

by on30 July 2009

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You will catch bubonic plague if your free your iPhone

Apple is
using scare tactics to make sure that people tow the line and obey the rules about which telco they should use.

Apple has been fuming that people have been buying their phones and jail breaking them so that they can enjoy the same freedom that consumers of every other phone has to chose their own network. Now the outfit has gone on the attack about jailbreaking, dubbing it "hacking" in order to make "unauthorized modifications" to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Apple claims that hacked phones should expect "Frequent and unexpected crashes of the device, crashes and freezes of built-in apps and third-party apps, and loss of data." It also claims that "Security compromises have been introduced by these modifications that could allow hackers to steal personal information, damage the device, attack the wireless network, or introduce malware or viruses."

It also claims that jailbreaking can lead to the iPhone OS being "damaged" like a cracked egg such that it is "not repairable." In turn, iPhones or iPods that have been jailbroken risk "becoming permanently inoperable."

The attacks on jailbreaking are amusing and one has to wonder why Apple suddenly considers that it is dangerous all of a sudden. Could it be because the Electronic Frontier Foundation to officially legalise jailbreaking through a DMCA exemption.The EFF has petitioned the Copyright Office to make jailbreaking exempt under fair use laws.

Apple claims that if users don't obey its will and hand over huge wodges of cash to the supplier of its choice they are infringing copyright. Still it is a little different from telling users that if they jailbreak their phones the digital equivalent of the horsemen of the apocalypse will ride and the lamb will break the seven seals.
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