For those that it may interest, the EFF ( Electronic Frontier Foundation) has made an exemption request to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of the Copyright Office suggesting that jailbreaking an iPhone should be legal. In its request, the EFF has asked that an explicit exemption for the jailbreaking of cellular phone handsets in order to remove any threat of jailbreaking possibly becoming a copyright crime. The EFF cited the iPhone as an example. Apple countered with the argument that jailbreaking the iPhone is an infringement of their copyright and should be illegal.
My opinion is that jailbreaking a phone is not illegal. It simply allows its users more control of what they can have on their iPhone. It's kind of like buying a car. GM is not going to tell you that you can't replace a part that is made generically and not still warrant the car. Obviously GM will not warrant a generic part but that is not the issue here. GM still warrants the car against defects etc. against any of its own manufactured parts. The rest of the car is still under warranty.
Much like my car example, Apple should look at this logically and see that this is not a copyright issue, it's a usability issue. The user ought to have the right to choose what they want to have on their phones. If not then perhaps they should look at loosening up the restrictions on what makes it into the app store.
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