iPhone jailbreak/unlock "helps drug dealers"

A jailbreak or a SIM-unlock of your iPhone could crash the cell network or assist drug dealers. At least, that's what Apple told the U.S. Copyright Office. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers are amazed that the company managed to keep a straight face.

Richi Jennings is your humble blogwatcher, who selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention that actually, Rome was built in a day...

David Kravets broke the story:

The nation’s cellphone networks could suffer “potentially catastrophic” cyberattacks by iPhone-wielding hackers at home and abroad if iPhone owners are permitted to legally jailbreak their shiny wireless devices — that’s what Apple claims.
...
The Copyright Office is considering a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to legalize the widespread practice of jailbreaking, in which iPhone owners hack their devices to accept software that hasn’t been approved for distribution through the iPhone App Store. ... Apple said “this would be desirable to drug dealers.”

Austin Modine laughs and laughs and laughs:

While the company stopped short of claiming jailbroken iPhone's attract packs of ravenous wolves, it nevertheless proselytized the distressing dystopia that awaits us all if iPhone owners are considered the "owners" of the OS rather than merely "licensees."
...
EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann notes that while Apple's hypothetical horror story is technically correct, mobile phone OS code is already accessible in the open source Android G1 phone and society has yet to collapse into said madness and chaos.

Nick Farrell, too:

Apple claims that if users don't obey its will and hand over huge wodges of cash to the supplier of its choice they are infringing copyright. Still it is a little different from telling users that if they jailbreak their phones the digital equivalent of the horsemen of the apocalypse will ride and the lamb will break the seven seals.
...
Apple is using scare tactics to make sure that people tow the line and obey the rules.

How much does Fredric Paul buy it?

I'm so not buying it. I don't even believe that Apple thinks jailbroken iPhones can crash cell-tower software. I think it's just an excuse to exercize Apple's unfortunate need to control every aspect of how people use its products. Lots of other mobile phones use software unsanctioned software without causing greivious bodily harm.
...
Back in the day, consumers wanted to connect their own phones to AT&T's wired telephone network, but the company complained that unauthorized equipment could harm the network. Under pressure from lawsuits, AT&T eventually relented ... but only if they rented a special "interconnect box" or network interface device to protect the network -- for about the same price that AT&T rented phones. ... In many ways, that was the beginning of the end for AT&T's hegemony.

Justin Mann puts it politely:

Currently, the U.S. Copyright Office is reviewing requests backed by the EFF and others to completely legalize jailbreaking. If enough people buy Apple’s rhetoric regarding this, however, such efforts could be crushed. It's clear that the company just wants to protect their bottom line, but their latest claims are preposterous at best.
...
They draw a comparison between people jailbreaking the iPhone to someone breaking into a corporate network and damaging computers. I give credit to Apple for the iPhone, but can they truly be making such a claim with a straight face? ... What makes the iPhone so exceptionally dangerous that allowing people the freedom to tinker with it will result in massive service outages all over the world?

But Darrell Etherington is somewhat sanguine:

I’m pretty confident that this is little more than a sensationalist scare tactic on Apple’s part, but the accusations make for pretty heavy reading. Not only could they take out transmission towers, but they also might be able to get around paying for calls (gasp!) and conduct denial-of-service attacks to purposefully crash the tower.

As far as I know, none of these things have ever actually happened, but kudos to Apple for giving people ideas.

So what's your take?
Get involved: leave a comment.

• Microsoft-Yahoo! deal is done; not as expected
• RIAA sues Joel Tenenbaum for $4.5m in P2P trial
• Tablet is 10 inch iPhone-cum-Apple-TV-3.0
• iPhone apps can hack your data, even on 3GS
• Microsoft's awful Q4: will Windows 7 save the day?

Don't miss out on IT Blogwatch:

• Subscribe to the Computerworld Blogs newsletter
• Catch up with posts from the previous few days

And finally...

• Building Rome in a Day
  [hat tip: Alf Eaton, via Andy Baio]

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 24 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him as @richi on Twitter or richij on FriendFeed, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itblogwatch@richij.com.