Ho.  Lee.  Cow.

A major win for third party iPhone app developers, app stores, and app users.  The U.S. Copyright law has determined that it is NOT illegal to jailbreak your iPhone.

Every three years, the U.S. Librarian of Congress reviews copyright laws in order to make revisions and exemptions.  The purpose of this is to determine “whether current technologies that control access to copyrighted works are diminishing the ability of individuals to use works in lawful, non-infringing ways.”  (copyright.gov)

On Monday, the following six classes of works are now exempt from prosecution (from CrunchGear):

1. Defeating a lawfully obtained DVD’s encryption for the sole purpose of short, fair use in an educational setting or for criticism
2. Computer programs that allow you to run lawfully obtained software on your phone that you otherwise would not be able to run aka Jailbreaking to use Google Voice on your iPhone
3. Computer programs that allow you to use your phone on a different network aka Jailbreaking to use your iPhone on T-Mobile
4. Circumventing video game encryption (DRM) for the purposes of legitimate security testing or investigation
5. Cracking computer programs protected by dongles when the dongles become obsolete or are no longer being manufactured
6. Having an ebook be read aloud (is for the blind) even if that book has controls built into it to prevent that sort of thing.

To get you up to speed, earlier this year Apple complained to the 2009 DMCA triennial rulemaking committee concerning jailbreaking the iPhone, and asked for the action to be deemed illegal.  This was in response to a grant filed by the EFF asking that jailbreaking be allowed and kept legal as it improves the overall capabilities of the iPhone.  In essence, Apple telling you it’s illegal to jailbreak your phone would similar to Honda telling you it’s illegal to purchase and install non-OEM parts (hypothetical example).

Obviously, this news touches close to home, as many of you have been asking when MiKandi will be available for iPhones.  As you know, MiKandi is on Apple’s radar, and we know better than to poke a sleeping giant.  It was never our intention to alienate our iPhone fans, but our plans were thwarted until today’s decision was made.  While I can’t say that we definitely will or will not pursue a MiKandi iPhone market either way, I can promise that we will investigate our options.  It is our vision to treat all of our fans, developers, and consumers as adults, and deliver quality adult-themed apps to numerous platforms.

Cheers!