With the introduction of the iPod, MacBook, iPad, and iPhone, Apple nestled its way into the lives and homes of millions around the world, consistently increasingly its market share of the portable consumer electronics industry. The software on Apple’s handheld devices, now called iOS, is a critical factor that has enabled Apple to gain its stranglehold control over the market, propelling the company to becoming, literally, the most valuable company in the world. Apple has built itself up as a proprietary, rather than “open”, company, and has actively sought to quell efforts by third parties to promote free software for use on its handheld devices. This free software seeks to provide the everyday user with the ability to perform functions and run applications not authorized by Apple, on Apple devices.

The dynamic between Apple and these third parties is truly unique and ironic. One of Apple’s main strategies to squash the free software movement has been to take the software developed by third parties and actually incorporate it into iOS itself. After Apple includes these programs in iOS, thereby recognizing as valuable and innovative these third party programs, Apple bolsters its protections within the software code itself to prevent third parties from hacking the system and developing more useful programs. Through these actions, Apple implicitly recognizes the true value third party developers bring to the iOS platform, and demonstrates that its proprietary model is not ideal for fostering true innovation.

From the moment Apple released its handheld devices users were imprisoned. Apple restricted the devices such that any new software would come from Apple, and Apple alone. Not only were users unable to install third-party software, but also they were prohibited from using these phones on a network other than AT&T. To free users from this industry-created jail, an underground community of software developers, “jailbreakers,” began investigating ways to access the system disk on Apple devices and open it. These jailbreakers sought to enable third-party developers to create programs, to make them available for installation by the average user, and to allow users to operate their phones on a carrier of their choosing. The applications available for jailbroken phones were organized in a single application on the handheld device from which the users themselves could download any program from the catalog.

As the jailbreak process became as easy as typing in a website URL, more and more users began jailbreaking their phones. Apple viewed jailbreaking as a threat, as users began relying less on Apple to give them the programs they wanted. Apple swiftly responded with the App Store, an application distribution program managed by Apple itself, which allows users to download new applications directly onto their phone from a single online catalog. Third party developers were now “allowed” to create programs for Apple devices, and, if Apple approved the application, to post it in the App Store. In return for the privilege of acceptance into the App Store, Apple received 30% of any revenue generated from these applications. To protect its investment in the App Store, to maintain control over third-party applications, and to foster good will among developers who posted programs on the App Store, Apple subsequently revamped and reinforced the built-in protections in its software, designed to prevent jailbreakers from hacking the system and giving users access to an alternate App Store, i.e., to non-approved applications for which Apple would receive zero remuneration, over which Apple had no control. The App Store was certainly not the only instance in which Apple appropriated ideas developed by the much-hated and much-feared jailbreakers. Since the iPhone’s inception, users wished for copy/paste functionality. In 2009, after that function had been available on jailbroken phones for nearly 2 years, Apple finally developed its own copy/paste function, and implemented it in version 3.0 of its software. It took apple another year to come out with its own multitasking function and implement it in iOS4. Copy/paste and multi-tasking functionality had grown significantly important to users such that more consumers were jailbreaking their phones, jailbreakers made these functions widely available in innovative ways.

Apple implemented these features largely to “convince” users that there was no longer a need to jailbreak their devices, thereby providing App Store developers with a continuing customer base, reinforcing Apple’s stranglehold on the market. Subsequent to implementing these innovative features developed by jailbreakers, Apple consistently reinforces its protections in its coding to prevent the jailbreakers from hacking newer versions of the device software. Further, after Apple releases software updates, those new versions must individually be jailbroken. In order for a user who has a jailbroken phone to upgrade to Apple’s newest software, the users must “restore” their device, which involves erasing all data on the device (songs, contacts, etc.), installing the new software, and re-jailbreaking the phone with an updated jailbreak program designed specifically for the new software version – an annoying, cumbersome process that often dissuades jailbroken users from even upgrading to Apple’s newest software. Again, Apple recognizes the innovation and value that developers of free software could bring to iOS when it implements innovative features developed by jailbreakers into iOS, but Apple is consistently unwilling to relinquish control over the technology and seeks to further exclude these developers from the development process and dissuade users from jailbreaking their devices.

There is hope for jailbreakers. Despite the incredible lobbying power of Apple and AT&T, congress recently amended 17 U.S.C. Section 1201, adding exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act regarding circumvention of technological measures. See 17. U.S.C. §§ 1201(f)(1)-(3) (1999). Recognizing that jailbreaking is fair use under the 1976 Copyright Act, the exemptions allow users to “jailbreak” their devices to use applications, even if Apple did not authorize those applications, and to enable “interoperability” between the third-party programs and the proprietary programs. See Id. While Apple can still try to block jailbreakers, it is not unlawful for individual users to hack their phones, and jailbreakers now have a legal mechanism standing behind them in their fight against Apple.

-- AustinKlar - 09 Oct 2011