The iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak for A4 iDevices has become available with the iPhone Dev Team and the Chronic Dev Team having released Corona 5.0.1 and Redsn0w 0.9.10b3. In this context one question being asked is whether these are legal or not.

Jailbreaks enable smartphone and tablet users to install and run software not authorized by device manufacturers, such as interface modifications or apps that turn smartphones into Wi-Fi hotspots without the awareness of a cellular carrier. Security experts generally warn against jailbreaking the iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch because they undermine iOS's main defense against malicious apps and cybercriminals. An untethered jailbreak means iDevice users are not required to plug in to their computer and use third-party software every time they need to restart their device.

Apple is not taking an encouraging stance in the efforts to free their devices from the bonds of the iTunes App Store. Each time the company updates their mobile device software like the recent iOS 5 release, previous past jailbreaks are wiped out from the updated devices along with any modifications made using jailbreak software. As a result, noted iPhone hackers like Pod2g and Musclenerd will have to find new weaknesses in the operating system which they can exploit in the name of a new jailbreak.

On the one hand Apple prefers users not to jailbreak their devices but on the other hand the practice is not illegal. Federal regulators had made a ruling in 2010 that jailbreaking is not a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as Apple had argued. Also the U.S. Copyright Office stated that Apple was asking the wrong people for protection of their business model. At that time the Copyright Office had stated, “While a copyright owner might try to restrict the programs that can be run on a particular operating system, copyright law is not the vehicle for imposition of such restrictions.”

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