Five reasons why Apple is not crying over ruling on jailbroken iPhones

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And, those who jailbroke their iPhone lived under fear that Apple could legally prosecute them taking recourse under the copyright law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Not surprisingly, Apple had vigorously challenged a petition by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF), a privacy rights advocacy group that had asked the Library of Congress, which oversees the Copyright Office, to exempt programs for smartphones.

Apple said EEF's stand amounted to an attack on the company's "particular business choices."

The company also warned the regulators that the nation's wireless carriers could suffer "potentially catastrophic" cyber attacks by iPhone hackers at home and abroad.

However, the Copyright Office had turned a deaf ear to Apple's arguments, saying a jailbroken smartphone does not violate the DMCA.

"When one jailbreaks a smartphone in order to make the operating system on that phone interoperable with an independently created application that has not been approved by the maker of the smartphone or the maker of its operating system, the modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses," the Copyright Office said, Monday.

"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," the regulator said.

In other words, someone who's jailbreaking or unlocking an iPhone will no longer have to worry about federal agents storming their homes with search warrants.

It also means that you can install and play any application on the iPhone, even those not approved by Apple.

Not surprisingly, the Dev-Team, one of the main groups offering free iPhone hacks, and Rock Your Phone, which sells an application to turn an iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, said the ruling is "fantastic news" and a "big win for consumers and applications developers."

So far so good. However, Apple isn't particularly crying over the matter.

Though the ruling means that Apple could possibly see a decline in its earnings over the next few months, it will but make a small dent in its revenue.

Why? Because though the DMCA was Apple's strongest weapon in controlling the iPhone, the ruling hasn't left Apple completely hapless.

There are five major reasons why the ruling is nothing more than a paper tiger lacking tooth and claws:

 One: Validity of three years.  The ruling is only valid for three years. Every three years, the Library of Congress' Copyright Office is charged with evaluating the DMCA's impact and adding exemptions on behalf of Americans who want to make "non-infringing uses" of copyrighted works. Which means that unless the Copyright Office approves its own ruling after three years, it will be deemed null and void.

 Two: Jailbreaking is risky.  Irrespective of the ruling, jailbreaking a smartphone is risky. The act of jailbreaking an iPhone should be left to tech savvy people as, if something goes wrong, it could render your iPhone unusable or "dead."

 Three: Jailbreaking voids Apple warranty.  Jailbreaking the iPhone still voids Apple warranty. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said Apple won't change its policy that voids iPhone warranties if a phone has been jailbroken. "It can violate the warranty and cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably," she said.

In other words, if jailbreaking goes horribly wrong and the iPhone is rendered unusable, you'll not only get ugly stares from Apple store people but also they'll refuse to fix your iPhone as the device is no longer under any warranty. Which means, you're left with an expensive paperweight unless you find a tech wizard who can bring it back to life.

 Four: Jailbreaking = bad user experience.  Jailbreaking an iPhone can result in bad user experience. Or at least that's what Apple claims. Apple has always maintained that it watches over the applications iPhone users install and play to avoid third-party applications that contain technical problems or inappropriate material such as pornography. In its contention before the Copyright Office, Apple said that jailbroken iPhones generally suffer from device and application instability, poor reception and network issues, disruption of certain services such as YouTube, Weather, Stocks and Visual Voicemail and a shorter battery life.

Additionally, jailbroken iPhones suffer from compromised security as unauthorized modifications have caused damage to the iOS which prevents future software updates.

The company reiterated its warning on Monday. "Apple's goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we've said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably," Apple said in response to the ruling.

 Five: Breach of contract.  You may not see federal agents at your doorstep but you may still see a battery of lawyers threatening to sue you for breach of contract. Why? Because the ruling only amounts to meaning that the copyright law is not the vehicle for Apple to impose restrictions on the programs that can be run on its proprietary operating system. In other words, though the Copyright Office's ruling deems jailbreaking legal, Apple can still pursue legal claims against those who jailbreak the iPhone as the act violates the terms of usage in the Apple iPhone Software License Agreement.

It's another story, however, that Apple, to date, has not sued or threatened to sue any iPhone customer for jailbreaking the device, and is not expected to suddenly send its legal team knocking on the doors of hundreds of thousands of iPhone users who have jailbroken their devices or the active developer community that have abetted their theoretically illegal activities.

In conclusion, the ruling notwithstanding, jailbreak an iPhone at your own risk.

As for switching wireless carriers, the Copyright Office owners of used cellphones can break access controls on their phones in order to switch wireless carriers without fear of violating the copyright laws, However, the ruling hasn't left AT&T sobbing. Why? Because you've still got to pay the early termination fees to AT&T unless you're okay with taking the risk of being sued by them for breach of contract.

Shares of Apple and AT&T were up 0.40 percent and 0.69 percent at $260.31 and $26.14 during pre-market trading session on Tuesday.