Comment by least
4 years ago
This is demonstrably not true. If you rent a home and then burn it down, you are going to be held liable to the owner of the home. In the case of your phone, no one, including Apple, cares if you buy it and then immediately smash it on the ground and destroy it.
Apple controls the software that runs on it but there is nothing that stops you from modifying or hacking it to your heart's content if you are able to, just as they are not obligated to make that an easy task for you.
>Apple controls the software that runs on it but there is nothing that stops you from modifying or hacking it to your heart's content
Nothing except all of Apple's attempts to make that difficult and a bad op sec decision. Oh and let's not forget the series of lawsuits attempting to make jailbreaking considered illegal. Luckily they failed there, but if they could make modifying their software illegal make no doubt that they would.
They don't own the hardware they sell you in the same way a landlord owns a home because they have transferred all physical equity to the purchaser. However, Apple's model really stretches the definition of "ownership". Would you say you own a adobe acrobat because you paid for it, or would you say you own a license to use it? Buying Apple means you own the hardware and license the software that makes that hardware be anything other than a paperweight. It's not a very attractive idea. Kudos to their marketing department.
> Nothing except all of Apple's attempts to make that difficult and a bad op sec decision.
No one said it had to be easy or advisable.
> Would you say you own a adobe acrobat because you paid for it, or would you say you own a license to use it?
Any software that I run that I didn't write myself is subject to the license of the people who wrote it defined it to be. Even the MIT License places requirements on you for you to be allowed to use the software. Exceptions to these copyright protections have been made which extends to jailbreaking iOS devices, which requires modifying copyrighted code.
> Buying Apple means you own the hardware and license the software that makes that hardware be anything other than a paperweight.
All hardware is paperweight without software.
> No one said it had to be easy or advisable.
Now you're making a pedantic point about a technicality instead of what's happening in real life.
> Any software that I run that I didn't write myself is subject to the license of the people who wrote it defined it to be. Even the MIT License places requirements on you for you to be allowed to use the software. Exceptions to these copyright protections have been made which extends to jailbreaking iOS devices, which requires modifying copyrighted code.
The MIT license doesn't require you to allow anyone else to scan your private data and doesn't allow the licensor to change the terms after you've already started using the software.
> All hardware is paperweight without software.
If you buy a Dell and you don't like the Dell crapware, you can remove it and the device still works just as well (if not better). If it came with Microsoft Windows and you don't like the Windows license, you can install Linux or OpenBSD. The hardware is still useful even if you don't like the license for the software it came with.
If you don't like Apple's software licensing terms, your iPhone is a paperweight.
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>All hardware is paperweight without software.
You miss the point. I can buy an x86 machine and run Windows or a FOSS OS or any number of unix clones or hell even write my own OS. From the outset I can say I own the hardware.
You can't say the same for Apple hardware. Even if the act of jailbreaking as a specific case is not considered illegal, you have to do many illegal things if you want to pwn an Apple device enough to run another OS on it.
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I think the op meant that as an analogy : in order for you to use their software, you pay 1000$ upfront for the hardware. So you can look at it as a one time payment/rent to use their environment. Since you need to upgrade iPhones quite often, I guess renting isn't a bad analogy.
> but there is nothing that stops you from modifying or hacking it to your heart's content if you are able to.
Are you sure? I haven't read the terms, but that might be quite against their rules. Rules that you probably adhere to by using their product, but I'm not a legal expert.
Their rules cover their continued services. When you buy an iPhone, you are free to use whatever tools you’d like to modify / hack / break / enhance / etc the device.
The terms govern your interaction w/ Apple. So, for example, if you crack open the case and try to re-wire the board, the terms say your warranty no longer applies. If you modify the software, they can ban you from interacting with their servers. And if you start offering to sell modified iPhones to other people, they can come after you for damaging their business.
That’s what owning the phone means. You can do what you want with the phone you bought, but they aren’t required to support your efforts or allow you to use the services they’re actively running.
You are allowed to modify iOS Software in this case because it is an exemption to the DMCA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jailbreaking_(iOS)#United_Stat...
Good to know, thanks!