Re:Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store
by sjy on Friday August 14, 2020 @01:26AM
(#24153995)
> You have the legal right to jailbreak your phone and install whatever you want; neither Apple nor the Feds can stop you.
The law isn’t that simple, and even if it was, Apple does stop most people from jailbreaking most Apple devices most of the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_jailbreaking#Digital_Mille...
Re:Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store
by saagarjha on Friday August 14, 2020 @06:31AM
(#24156139)
In the United States, the law is that simple.
Re:Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store
by sjy on Friday August 14, 2020 @05:31PM
(#24163549)
Did you read the link I posted?
> The jailbreaking of smartphones continued to be legal "where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of [lawfully obtained software] applications with computer programs on the telephone handset." However, the U.S. Copyright office refused to extend this exemption to tablets, such as iPads, arguing that the term "tablets" is broad and ill-defined, and an exemption to this class of devices could have unintended side effects.
Re:Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store
by saagarjha on Friday August 14, 2020 @06:20PM
(#24163979)
I did, but not very closely. That snippet is out of date and I have updated it–tablets have been exempt since 2015.
Re:Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store
by sjy on Friday August 14, 2020 @08:05PM
(#24164699)
Damn, I should have paid attention to that niggling doubt about whether it was wise to cite Wikipedia, but I saw that there were footnotes and I assumed they were still accurate. Thank you for updating the article!
The thing is, people do have this right on Apple phones; the Library of Congress can designate exemptions from the DMCA and they have done so for jailbreaking smart phones. You have the legal right to jailbreak your phone and install whatever you want; neither Apple nor the Feds can stop you.
Now, whether Apple must make it easy for you to do that is a different question. They actually do, in a way--if you have an Apple developer account you can "side load" whatever you want onto your personal phone. You have to register and pay $99 for that privilege, though. Again--the question is how easy Apple should make it for you to do that.
Anyway, this particular lawsuit is not about Apple devices at all; it's about the contract between Apple and the App Developers in their store. If Epic wins this lawsuit, it might encourage some more developers to list their apps in the App Store, but it will have zero impact on how hard it is for you to freely install whatever software on an Apple phone.