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Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by sneak on Tuesday December 05, 2023 @09:43PM (#38539933)
Emulation software isn’t wholly original as it needs firmware and software from the device so emulated. An iPhone emulator with no bootrom and no iOS isn’t very useful.

An open source client for an API need not include any non-original works.

Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by lxgr on Tuesday December 05, 2023 @11:42PM (#38540540)
Depends on whether you consider a private key an "original work": https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush/blob/main/albert.py#L16

The situation seems very similar to the AACS key leak back in the day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AACS_encryption_key_controvers...

Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by comex on Wednesday December 06, 2023 @12:40AM (#38540791)
Note that a key cannot be copyrighted, but it can be considered a circumvention tool for access controls that protect other copyrighted works.
Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by captn3m0 on Tuesday December 05, 2023 @11:24PM (#38540458)
There is a very useful iPhone emulator with no bootrom and no iOS: https://touchhle.org/

It targets games, so manages to be useful without having to emulate or re-implement the majority of the OS.

Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by graphe on Tuesday December 05, 2023 @10:13PM (#38540110)
Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by rezonant on Wednesday December 06, 2023 @07:23AM (#38542907)
After digging in more I believe that is only done in that proof of concept. If that's the case then it's too bad they didn't go back and update the POC to avoid the need for the binary.
Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by sprite on Wednesday December 06, 2023 @09:10AM (#38544084)
For the app it is probably just done server side.
Re:Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage Client for Android by reallynattu on Wednesday December 06, 2023 @08:02PM (#38551593)
What are the potential legal and ethical ramifications for developers and users in using such emulation methods or accessing private APIs?