Tonight, there's gonna be a (legal) jailbreak!

Overheard at a session of Dungeons and Dragons in the past week:
Guy 1: "Ok, can I take the voluptuous tavern maid to bed?"
Guy 2: "Wait, check for traps!"
(Guy 1 rolls a 17 on a trap check)
DM: "You find a chastity belt."
Guy 1: "Dammit!"
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It was announced yesterday that jailbreaking an iPhone is legal under federal copyright law.

And I bet Apple's pretty pissed.

If you aren't familiar with the term, jailbreaking is the act of hacking an iPhone to gain access to apps that aren't approved by Apple, through the underground appstore Cydia.  A similar practice can be used on video game consoles, or the iPhone, to play pirated games

Apple's discouraged the practice ever since someone thought of doing it, since the practice can undermine the closed system that Apple has laid down in the same format since 2007.  Of course, it hasn't been the best system:

Not Invented Here is property of Bill Barnes and Paul Southworth

Of course, if someone were to pirate apps using their jailbroken iPhones, authorities could take action against the perpetrators.  But, the act of jailbreaking is not considered a crime, and neither is the use of Cydia, as long as all developers get credit and/or money for their work.  The system is similar to the system in Canada with respect to BitTorrent: The act of torrenting isn't illegal, since it can be used for freeware.  Pirating is illegal, however.

While Apple can still take action against jailbreakers available to them with their business rights, such as denial of service or refusing warranties, people who jailbreak their iPhones cannot be legally charged.

Of course, Apple doesn't like this one bit.  They think that they're entitled to the regulation of their own system.  However, with all the attention Apple's getting now, you have to wonder how long it might take for them to seriously mess up.