Is Jailbreaking, not unlocking, your phone illegal?

[~/XC- BRONY\~ 310]

Alright so I have heard that unlocking your phone to use with a different carrier is illegal, but what if youre doing just a jailbreak? cause I want to jailbreak my phone just to use Cydia and stuff.

[Betez 1,734]

I'm pretty sure Jailbreaking is illegal, if they catch you, that is. But if you still want to jailbreak your iPod, don't use Cydia. Use either GreenPoison or RedSnow. I tried to jailbreak my iPod using Cydia, and it ended up crashing it. I lost all the content that I hadn't backed up onto iTunes.

Edited February 7, 2013 by Betez

[~/XC- BRONY\~ 310]

I'm pretty sure Jailbreaking is illegal, if they catch you, that is. But if you still want to jailbreak your iPod, don't use Cydia. Use either GreenPoison or RedSnow. I tried yo jailbreak my iPod using Cydia, and it ended up crashing it. I lost all the content that I hadn't backed up onto iTunes.

yea I use greenposion. im just worried because ive seen a lot of jailbreaking illegal things, but they all talk about unlcking to switch your carriers, which I don't want to do, I like AT&T

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

No, in fact, the the people working the the tech centers at Apple Stores have been known to do it for people if they ask, It might void the warranty, but Apple's warranties are useless anyway. 

Edited February 7, 2013 by Shoboni

[~/XC- BRONY\~ 310]

No, in fact the the people working the the tech center at Apple Stores have been known to do it for people if they ask, It might void the warranty  but Apple's warrantys are useless anyway. 

Alright, yea I don't have a warranty on my phone anyways, thank you for being so much help, and that thank you goes to you too, Betez

[Jammo 986]

Not illegal, but against the privately owned companies terms of service. You void the warranty and it's well within their rights to stop supporting your phone. So think before you do it.

[Cowl 128]

It was legal to unlock your phone in the USA, but the law changed at the beginning of 2013. It can still be done legally, but it has to be done with the permission/by your current carrier.

 

 

Jail breaking and Rooting are legal until at least 2016

you can also check here for more info:

 

http://www.androidauthority.com/jailbreak-root-unlock-how-it-works-legally-speaking-151918/

Edited February 7, 2013 by Cowl

[Kamil 315]

Jailbreaking is legal in the USA (Not even a clue about anywhere else in the world) but only for iPhones. iPads are still restricted for some reason, and I have seen no news regarding the iPod Touch.

 

Regardless, it is guaranteed to void your warranty and if Apple and/or your carrier found a way to remotely detect Jailbroken phones they are within their rights to completely shut it down without notice or compensation.

[Betez 1,734]

Huh, I guess I was wrong. I thought I heard about a thing on the iPhone 5 and the new iPod touch about If you try to jailbreak it, they'll shut down your device. But I guess they were talking about unlocking.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

I'm pretty sure Jailbreaking is illegal, if they catch you, that is. But if you still want to jailbreak your iPod, don't use Cydia. Use either GreenPoison or RedSnow. I tried to jailbreak my iPod using Cydia, and it ended up crashing it. I lost all the content that I hadn't backed up onto iTunes.

I used Cydia and mine was fine. You must have done something wrong when installing it, I didn't lose anything when doing it.

 

And OP, if they don't catch you, nothing is illegal.

[Cupcake Ice Cream 436]

I used Cydia and mine was fine. You must have done something wrong when installing it, I didn't lose anything when doing it.

 

And OP, if they don't catch you, nothing is illegal.

yeah i had zero problem with Cydia...was done in a short while and there ya had it! Next thing I knew I was playing mario kart NES with a Wiimote on my ipad...what a glorious day it was

[-Nobody- 519]

Jailbreaking phones is legal in the US, but for some odd reason, the government has decided jailbreaking tablets is NOT legal.

So jailbreaking an iPod is half legal.

[StrobeFlashLite 17]

Rooting an Android tablet isn't legal unless it is allowed by the tablet maker.

And for the weirdest of reasons, my Android tablet has already been rooted. At the factory.

AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWW YEAH CAN'T CATCH ME NOW GOVERNMENT

[Darth Fader 24]

It was legal to unlock your phone in the USA, but the law changed at the beginning of 2013. It can still be done legally, but it has to be done with the permission/by your current carrier.

It's always (AFAICR) been like this in the UK.  You would take your handset to them and they would unlock it for a charge.  I would imagine US carriers would also charge for this.

[CyberFlash 41]

Jailbreaking your iPhone or rooting your Droid is perfectly legal! At the end of the day it is your toy, you bought it, you legally own it and can use it however you choose. The only issues are (obviously) voiding any warranty and that you will need to install updates manually in both cases.

 

I have both an iPhone 3 (jailbroken) and an HTC Sensation XE (rooted) I've found Android very easy to update with Clockwork Recovery MOD. I've not attempted updating iOS so don't know the process for this (mine is so heavily hacked I suspect I would need to do a complete reinstall.). But Cydia is pretty cool, and there are some fantastic apps there.

 

So yeah, definitely legal..however if you go to a bar with your friends after work and run nmap against an unsecured WiFi network to probe for other devices, then gain access to one of the devices using some other tools you've installed via Cydia...now *THAT* just might be illegal so don't do it.

 

But it would definitely be worth familiarising yourself with whatever device you root/jailbreak because obviously the manufacturers are unlikely to help if you get stuck or end up with a non-bootable device etc But if all else fails www.xda-developers.com is a fantastic resource and you'll almost certainly find the answer to most questions there!

Edited February 9, 2013 by CyberFlash

[frozengal 1]

Alright so I have heard that unlocking your phone to use with a different carrier is illegal, but what if youre doing just a jailbreak? cause I want to jailbreak my phone just to use Cydia and stuff.

According to the new law, Unlocking Mobile phones purchased before January 26th 2013 is not illegal. Whereas mobile phones purchased after January 26th 2013 alone is illegal. To re-legalize unlocking phones people can sign in the online petition from https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7. The petition closes on 23/02/2012 .

you can jailbreak using greenpoison . If you want to unlock Iphone and if it is purchased before jan 26 then you can make use of http://www.onlinegsmunlock.com for remote unlocking service

Edited February 15, 2013 by frozengal

[Evilshy 5,090]

If you still want access to support and the warranty, just make a back up of the device before you jailbreak it (which you should've done anyway, if you're smart). If you want to take it in for service, restore it and they can't tell it's ever been jailbroken.