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Comment by rorrr | Hacker News Reader

As much as I support geohot and dislike DMCA, I'm pretty sure releasing code that circumvents security (and especially the one that causes financial loss) is still illegal.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/1201.html#a

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/1201.html#a2

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/1201.html#b

There's one exception - circumvention is allowed only for security testing purposes, but I doubt he would be able to successfully use that clause.

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so how is this different to jailbreaking an iPhone?

Well, first, I'm not sure it is legal to jailbreak an iPhone, but to answer your question it's different because the US Copyright office said so.

There's a specific exemption to the anticircumvention provision of the DMCA for "Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset."

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/

It is legal to jailbreak an iPhone in the USA. Jailbreaking was added to a list of exemptions to the DMCA last year.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jail...

Uh, yeah, I quoted that exemption. But it is NOT an absolute right. If you jailbreak an iPhone for the purpose of e.g. using pirated apps (which I imagine many people are) then you are committing a crime even if you haven't pirated anything yet.

absolutely! if you look back you can see that geohot never intended to enable piracy on the platform

The PS3 isn't a phone. The exemption doesn't apply.

Correct, the argument, and also the reason he should be supported, is that it should be. We bought it, we should do with it as we wish (as long as it's not causing financial loss due to piracy etc).

Hey, I'm totally with you. But just because you don't like a law doesn't make it not a law. I think the DMCA is here to stay unless and until Congress fixes it.

Doesn't apply yet because it's never been tested in court. The parallel is pretty strong so there's a good chance that the courts would extend it if they ever got as far as ruling on it.

I really hope the defense argument doesn't hinge on proving the PS3 is a cell phone.

It won't, I'd imagine it will hinge on the same arguments that were used to get the exemption for the cell phone.

But the copyright office still can't absolve you of any "trafficking" charges. That is, you can be liable for distributing circumvention tools for an otherwise lawful act. In other words, you can get blamed for distributing iPhone jailbreak tools.

IANAL and I haven't seen it played out in court, but it's one of the more commonly discussed flaws in the DMCA.

The other fun thing is that exemptions can expire unless they elect to renew them each time.

Sadly this exemption was probably added because some of the government officials involved have jailbroken iPhones for one reason or another.

The exemption also specifically states that the exemption only applies to "wireless telephone handset" ... "computer software, in the form of firmware or software", where the purpose of the hack would be to enable the lawfully obtained device to operate on a different network than the one it was sold as restricted to. (Designated class C). Class B states that it is legal to build (and distribute?) programs designed for wireless telephone handsets that are legally obtained in their own right (don't reuse code that say Apple developed), but again it is restricted to "Wireless telephone handsets ... connected to a wireless ... network"

Using the letter of the law, PS3 jailbreaking is not covered under those exemptions. The only exemptions relating to video games are to controlled DRM works where a hacker wishes to research security vulnerabilities, but the "information derived from the security testing is used or maintained in a manner that does not facilitate copyright infringement". Sony might have a decent case against GeoHot based on this, since he released the keys that enable people to sign custom code that may act as a frontloader to bypass DRM checks for illegally obtained copyrighted code.

Us hackers might consider the differences between a PS3 and an iPhone negligible enough that hacking either is logically the same task, but the DCMA states that they are two separate beasts and hacking one is entirely different than hacking the other. Unfortunately, people need to follow the letter of the law in order to stay out of these kinds of legal challenges, but these legal challenges are also what help craft the law to be fair. I just wish that GeoHot had a better chance at winning this. He should have been thinking about how to cover his ass a long time ago.

DCMA Exemption source [PDF]: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2010/07/dmcaex...

it is legal to jailbreak an iphone http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jail...

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