Federal Ruling Allows Users to 'Jailbreak' Phones, Including iPhone (AAPL)

The U.S. copyright office issued exemptions to a copyright law, giving legal protection for people who unlock their smartphones. The ruling is especially noteworthy for Apple AAPL, because its popular iPhone is among the most "jail broken" phones on the market. Reuters is reporting that "The move by the copyright office to give exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), will undermine handset makers like Apple's ability to control the installation of software programs on their phones." "More than a million iPhone owners are said to have 'jailbroken' their handsets in order to change wireless providers," Electronic Frontier Foundation, which fought for the exemption, said in a separate statement. An Apple spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that "jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience" of the iPhone and that it "can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably." Shares of Apple are up more than 1.5% today, to $264.10.