EFF wins enormous victory against DRM: legal to jailbreak iPhones, rip DVDs for mashup videos

“The Electronic Frontier Foundation drove three deep wedges into
the US prohibition on breaking DRM today. EFF had applied to the
Copyright Office to grant exemptions permitting the cracking of DRM
in three cases: first, to “jailbreak” a mobile device, such as an
iPhone, where DRM is used to prevent phone owners from running
software of their own choosing; second, to allow video remix
artists to break the DRM on DVDs in order to take short excerpts
for mashups posted to YouTube and other sharing sites; finally EFF
got the Copyright Office to renew its ruling that made it legal to
unlock cellphones so that they can be used with any carrier.

“These are major blows against the tradition in US law of
protecting DRM, even when DRM wasn’t upholding copyright. For
example, Apple argued in its Copyright Office filing that it should
be illegal under copyright law to install iPhone software unless
Apple had approved and supplied it (akin to the principle that you
should only be allowed company-approved bread in your toaster, or
Folgers-approved milk in your instant coffee).”

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