Jailbreaking Declared Legal

Though the very terms “jailbreaking” and “unlocking” sound sketchy, the US government has just issued the final word- jailbreaking and/or unlocking one’s cell phone is legal, and owners who choose to do so will not find themselves in trouble.

The public has long been in the dark about the legality about these issues, and many don’t even understand what they mean. For the record, unlocking is usually done to enable to the owner to receive service from another carrier (ie: not AT&T), and jailbreaking is done to enable the use of “rogue” apps, or to make advanced customizations.

Though some have questioned the legality, the practice of unlocking and jailbreaking has become extremely common. So many iPhone users have switched to alternate carriers that T-Mobile has been providing iPhone support for well over a year now, and it seems that new unlocking services are popping up every day, taking advantage of the fact that this business can be carried out entirely online.

That brings us to the downsides- while unlocking or jailbreaking your phone won’t land you behind bars, it won’t make you any friends at Apple’s Genius Bar either. In other words, unlocking or jailbreaking your iPhone voids your warranty and will prevent you from continuing to access many of Apple’s services.

And a word of warning to unlock spammers- attempting to advertise your services on FixYa won’t make you any friends here either.