The Wall Street Journal reports today, that Apple must release its tight hold on the Apps for phones market for iPhone holders and users. 

According to Ben Worthen and Amy Schatz‘ report: “The Library of Congress removed a legal cloud over altering of iPhones, iPads and iPods, to install and run software not purchased from Apple, as an act of copyright law guardianship, that frees up the IT phone apps market. Growth in this area is likely to occur. For example, an app for the 99 cent store, delivery to your door, would rock. [i99. TM]

Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at Electronic Freedom Foundation, the digital-rights organization, said the ruling could open the door for third-party app stores. “Innovators now know that there will be customers for them,” she says. And innovators should always be rewarded, they are the eyes of the economies new frontier, always. Well, the successful innovators, who value usefulness in their inventions, over anything else, that helps save time and provide convenience. 

The law affects the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. At current count, approximately, 8% of iPhones have been altered to allow downloads of Apps outside of Apple’s control.

“I don’t think it’s that big a deal,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. “The mainstream iPhone customer isn’t complaining about apps they can’t get because of Apple’s restrictive policies. Note to other Apps makers for iPhones, always have a pretty picture as the motif, for your App, so it can compete with Apple Apps, because the power of a single image, symbol, or icon–is what drives Apps marketing, more often than not. 

Mario Ciabarra, president of Rock Your Phone Inc., which sells apps for jailbroken iPhones, says close to $2 million worth of about apps for about four million iPhones have been downloaded from his store. He said the company felt that what it was doing was legal, but was not eager to argue that point in court. What this ruling does “is make it very clear that it is okay,” he said. Ciabarra, riding the grey line of the law, has made a fortune, which quite frankly, is how many entrepreneurs are getting ahead in these current times. It must be a relief that the law now supports his innovative biz mooves on the IT, mobile telephony frontier. 

Apple, which says it has sold about 50 million iPhones worldwide, has discouraged jailbreaking, explaining, ”Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone,” said an Apple spokesperson, adding that “jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience” of the iPhone and that it “can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably,” she said.

In a consumer society, where choice is everything, that was a bit of a stretch to believe, but, good on Apple for playing the ‘quality control’ and ‘safety card’ for Apple users, to make a mint, up until now in the Apps for iPhones market. 

In 2008 the EFF, asked the Library of Congress to authorize jailbreaking, (so Elvis Presley of them) arguing that the rights of Apple and other smartphone makers wouldn’t be infringed because any changes to the devices are for the personal use of the phone owner. Of course, Apple said “hell to the no” on that one. 

The US Copyright office said that phone owners have the right to run whatever legal programs they want on their devices and that “modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses.” That was a lot of gobbly gook, for most iPhone users to understand. Glad to see the copyright language are so lay person’s relevant. It’s a specialized field that copyright law, aint it? Especially when words are complicated like that. 

The action was in the form of a final rule, which would require a legal challenge to overturn.

The Library of Congress also ruled that it was legal to modify software on a used phone so that it can run on a different carrier’s network, although other technical barriers make it difficult to use an iPhone with networks other than that of AT&T Inc., the sole carrier authorized by Apple in the United States.

The US government said the use of snippets of DVDs and other videos for use in universities and schools have fair use protections under the law. Isn’t that taking from filmmakers to pay poor school teachers within the education system, now stealing from other industries to create teaching resources, to support Education? Well, at least it’s about educational ‘purposes’ to get around that ruling. Cheek and Chong films, to explain the benefits of medical marijuana, within the health system, could now be an educational aid. Ridiculous! :)

However, the office rejected other applications for fair-use protections, including a request that consumers be allowed to use their own software to access streaming online video from Netflix Inc. or other providers.

~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 7.27.2010. Also go here.~