So the United States Government (with a little gentle encouragement from the Electronic Frontier Foundation) has announced a “Fair Use” exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The “Fair Use” exemption is already in place for other kinds of copyright law. “Fair Use” is what allows you to use another person’s characters or trademarks for the purposes of parody, or to quote their work when you’re writing an article about them.

The extension of Fair Use to digital copyright law is going to have some pretty far-reaching implications, not least for those of us who enjoy the benefits of unlicensed third party apps for our iPhones. From the beginning Apple has fought tooth and nail against people trying to “jailbreak” their iPhones- hacking the iPhone to allow for the installation of other software. First Apple tried to argue it was illegal, until the Electronic Frontier Foundation successfully campaigned to get a specific exemption of iPhone Jailbreaking into the DMCA in 2010.

This new announcement goes a step further, meaning that Apple is no longer allowed to try to stop you from jailbreaking your phone with either hardware or software measures.

However, the Fair Use exemption will have farther reaching implications than just allowing you to install new backgrounds to your iPhone screen. Under the new laws academics are now allowed to legally break the copy protection on DVDs to use film clips in their classroom. It also means you can remove security measures from any hardware or software that is no longer supported by the publisher or manufacturer, or investigate and fix any problems in your software.

This goes a long way to recognising to ensuring that consumers have the right to do what they please with the products they have paid for and own. Although for most people it will just make it easier for them to buy new toys for their iPhone.