Apple's Mission to Jail iPhone Breakers! Crackulous and Pwned beware.

You have to love CNN, Story coverage today, is breaking news that Apple would love to throw you into the slammer, for jail-breaking you iPhone.

Now, as much as Apple believes they have the right, the fact is ownership is 9 tenths of the law. If you bought it you own it. If you are paying a monthly fee to a carrier then you are paying for it! The phone is yours, if you want to throw it in the garbage or run it over with your car, it's your choice. So messing with an OS you've paid for, is also your choice. Just don't ask for any hardware support or manufacturer warranty if you brick your iPhone.

Now here is what is not legal, the cracking of applications, providing hacks to allow users to use purchased software. Also in the U.S. yes it is illegal to download such applications and install them on your iPhone. It's the same issue about breaching the Millennium Copyright Protection Act, that the MPAA has been screaming about for years.

Just like loading an illegally downloaded MP3, or an MP4. Getting applications from sites like Hackulous, Appulous, Crackulous and so on, might one day land you in legal hot-water. Or maybe Apple will brick your iPhone the next time you connect it to iTunes, and then mail you out a violation fine.

Edit: Feb 19 2009.

Looks like Skype and Mozilla jumped into trash Apples locking blocking rules on loading what you want on hardware you've purchased and have filed their own sets of papers in support of a more open handset. As the Yahoo Tech article reports... they both have something to gain with a more jail-broken handset operating system. Browser choice and IP WiFi calling.. hmmm.