United States allows jailbreaking of tablets, smart TVs

It’s an inversion of the presumption of innocence: in Section 1201-land, everything you do is prohibited unless you out-gun your devices’ manufacturers in an obscure, highly technical government hearing.

Digital rights organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology welcomed the latest list of exemptions, although they also noted a few problems with the library’s decision.

But things are far from ideal.

The Library of Congress has powers related to copyright protection, including the right to make exemptions to DMCA.

You can read the full set of changes to the DMCA here.

The Copyright Office imposed brutally restrictive conditions on jailbreakers.

Higgins says that the opposition to the exemptions didn’t actually have much to do with copyright protection, but in using copyright to enforce other business or regulatory concerns. he EPA, for example, argued that individuals would be able to modify their cars to circumvent safety and emissions laws. Congress believes that console jailbreaking is “closely tied to video game piracy”.

The new exemptions will only pertain to tablets and smart TVs. While previously, the jailbreaking of tablets was ruled as being illegal.

Even this good news points out the absurdity of the process. Proponents of the exemptions also wanted that last part to be available to fictional filmmakers, but that got shot down. The new copyright exemptions will free researchers to continue their investigations without fear of intellectual property suits from automakers.

In regard to automotive fix, the document recognizes the growing need for repairers to be able to access and sometimes alter vehicle software. The rules are not going to take effect for about a year, which means the EPA and other agencies have enough time to prepare.

“I am pleased that the ruling recognizes many legitimate and valuable activities, such as security research of software in the devices we use every day-from cars to pacemakers”, Wyden said in a statement.

Prior to today’s decision by the Librarian of Congress, auto manufacturers…had attempted to block an exemption…in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act…that would allow anyone to play with the code that ran on vehicles they’d bought. Moreover, if a device is legally obtained and activated from wireless telecommunication networks, it is “used” in line with the exemption. For instance, if you want to modify an old computer game so that it doesn’t try to authenticate itself with a server that no longer works, you’ll be allowed to do so. Besides, video game consoles like Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox can not be jailbroken. The exemption also applies to games with servers that have been shuttered for at least six months without prior publisher notification.