Is it legal to jailbreak an iPhone in S’pore?
In July last year, the United States' federal regulators declared it was lawful to "jailbreak" an iPhone despite strong opposition from Apple as it would affect the company's lucrative App Store business. Ever since, many iPhone users here have been inquiring whether it is legal to jailbreak their iOS devices, too.
Yahoo! Singapore spoke to five media lawyers and they all confirmed that iPhone jailbreaking is legal, but it comes with a catch. It is legal to hack your iOS to gain access to additional features or install unverified third-party applications that are not available in the App Store if it does not violate any copyright laws. It applies to all mobile operating systems, including Google Android and Windows Mobile.
Installation of customised themes or add-ons from external sources, be it complimentary or premium, is perfectly fine. However if one downloads, for example, the FIFA 11 app, which comes with a price tag of US$2.99 on the App Store, for free, he or she could be subjected to a fine of SG$20,000 under copyright laws.
"Many iPhone users here have instilled the wrong impression. While iPhone jailbreaking might be legal, the copyright laws still apply provided that the software is infringing (on the copyrights), and this includes some of the premium apps that are sold on the App Store," said James Wong, a 45-year-old lawyer who specialises in copyright lawsuits.
"The wisest choice is to not jailbreak your phone," he added.
A 16-year-old Secondary 4 student, who has jailbroken his iPhone 4 and declined to be named, said that he will continue to download apps that may infringe on copyright laws even though he may face lawsuits. "It's just like downloading songs illegally from the Internet and torrenting games or movies. My friends are all doing it and I don't see any reason why I should obey the copyright laws," he proclaimed.
The top three reasons why consumers jailbreak their smartphone devices are to install third-party applications banned by the App Store, tweak the user interface, and illegally download premium apps from the App Store because they are not willing to fork out additional money for paid apps on top of the price they paid for the phone itself.
When contacted, Apple spokesman warned that "iPhone jailbreaking can cause the device to become unstable and not work reliably", and made it clear that jailbreaking the phone will void the warranty.
However, due to the fact that jailbreaking only tinkers with the software, all effects are reversible. Users can revert their phone to its factory settings at any time via iTunes.
The writer is a 17-year-old technology blogger who loves social media and gadgets. He is also Singapore's No. 1 Twitter user with 192,000 followers.
