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Comment by ujjwalg | Hacker News Reader

He definitely broke a law. But to send him to jail for doing this is just ridiculous. He should be penalized financially for this and thatz it.

IMO, anyone who jailbreaks their own stuff shouldn't be put under the law, but someone doing it for others for money definitely are breaking the laws. But it is not something that taxpayers money should be wasted in sending him to jail and going through the investigation. Fine him and be done with it.

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It's legal for me to pay someone to clean my house.

Why should it be illegal for me to pay someone to remove restrictions from a device I own?

Unfortunately, it isn't a question of should it be legal or not. Anybody with any common sense can see that it should not be illegal, but common sense does not rule our country.

The DMCA makes this illegal. Good thing Homeland Security could jump in and save us here.

they are not charging people who got their consoles jailbroken. They charged the guy who was jailbreaking them for money.

Moreover, the analogy you have is completely irrelevant. I was not arguing against the moral issue behind it. I was saying he broke the LAW and thatz it.

He broke a law that should not exist in the first place.

"that's"

He definitely broke a law. But to send him to jail for doing this is just ridiculous. He should be penalized financially for this and thatz it.

If he broke a law (DMCA), and the law says he goes to jail, then he "should" go to jail.

I think the DMCA is deeply flawed to start with - IMO, what he did "shouldn't" be penalized at all.

And what would be a good financial penalty for physically modifying a hunk of plastic and semiconductor that you bought?

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