Sadly, no about the free cracking tech, at least as far as I know. Even with the recent Library of Congress ruling (and what's up with the "every three years" thing on that. Don't we do speedy justice in America? LOL I crack myself up) allowing clips for critique, documentaries and educational use, I still don't see tools out there.Danceofmasks said:Ah, but if the jailbreaking technology is given away for free, such as in the case of cracking region-locked DVDs, then it's all good.w00tage said:....unless you count the market for legal jailbreaking of devices. Were it legal to get the technology, of course.Danceofmasks said:I may think Sony are a bunch of tools ... to the point of ... their court cases never actually address anything, but are just constantly repeating "PIRATES!" against every argument.
Jailbreaking your devices is legal. Selling jailbreaking technology or devices is not, because they're almost entirely used for illegal purposes.
That's actually sort of the same kind of system as the "copying your movies is legal. Copying DVDs of your movies is not because breaking the copy protection is what pirates do" deal. The truth there is, you actually own the license to any "Fair Use" of the movie, but being unable to legally break the copy protection means the producer can charge you any desired price for the movie on new media, instead of having the price set by the actual costs of getting it transferred to the new media (almost nothing).
In other words, it's worth it for a company to pay lawyers, lobbyists and government officials to circumvent both the letter and intent of the law by passing a contradictory law that is too expensive to fight in court.
The reason the Hotz court case was such a circus was 'cos Sony didn't actually have a legal leg to stand on, and they were just using their financial clout to hurt him by dragging it on and on.
And note, that ruling still didn't say "oh and you can copy movies you have bought to hard drives for your own home use, because you do own the license for the movie and it's the same as playing it from the DVD except way more convenient". Way to fail the public interest, Librarian of Congress. Your corporate overlords are pleased.