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Legal Aspects of Android Rooting

Rooting an Android device removes manufacturer restrictions on the device to allow installation of modified firmware. While rooting was illegal under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, exemptions have been granted since 2010 allowing users to root their devices for the purpose of installing applications. However, these exemptions must be renewed every three years and do not apply to trafficking in tools used for rooting. New Zealand copyright law also allows circumvention of technological protection measures for non-infringing purposes such as rooting a device.

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16 views1 page

Legal Aspects of Android Rooting

Rooting an Android device removes manufacturer restrictions on the device to allow installation of modified firmware. While rooting was illegal under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, exemptions have been granted since 2010 allowing users to root their devices for the purpose of installing applications. However, these exemptions must be renewed every three years and do not apply to trafficking in tools used for rooting. New Zealand copyright law also allows circumvention of technological protection measures for non-infringing purposes such as rooting a device.

Uploaded by

Dissasekara
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

3/23/2014

Android rooting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The law Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 makes circumventing DRM protection measures legal for the purpose of interoperability but not copyright infringement. Rooting may be a form of circumvention covered by that law, but this has not been tested in court.[21][31] Competition laws may also be relevant.[32]

United States
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, rooting is illegal in the United States, except for phones by exemption "at least through 2015",[33] although despite the Copyright Office's legal exemption. In 2010, in response to a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the U.S. Copyright Office explicitly recognized an exemption to the DMCA to permit rooting.[34][35] In their ruling, the Library of Congress affirmed on July 26, 2010 that rooting is exempt from DMCA rules with respect to circumventing digital locks. DMCA exemptions must be reviewed and renewed every three years or else they expire. On October 28, 2012, the US Copyright Office updated their exemption policies. The rooting of smartphones continues to be legal "where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of [lawfully obtained software] applications with computer programs on the telephone handset." However, the U.S. Copyright office refused to extend this exemption to tablets, arguing that the term "tablets" is broad and ill-defined, and an exemption to this class of devices could have unintended side effects.[36][37][38] The Copyright Office also renewed the 2010 exemption for unofficially unlocking phones to use them on unapproved carriers, but restricted this exemption to phones purchased before January 26, 2013.[37] Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, argued in 2007 that jailbreaking is "legal, ethical, and just plain fun."[39] Wu cited an explicit exemption issued by the Library of Congress in 2006 for personal unlocking, which notes that locks "are used by wireless carriers to limit the ability of subscribers to switch to other carriers, a business decision that has nothing whatsoever to do with the interests protected by copyright" and thus do not implicate the DMCA.[40] Wu did not claim that this exemption applies to those who help others unlock a device or "traffic" in software to do so.[39] In 2010 and 2012, the U.S. Copyright Office approved exemptions to the DMCA that allow users to root their devices legally.[41] It is still possible to employ technical countermeasures to prevent rooting or prevent rooted phones from functioning.[42] It is also unclear whether it is legal to traffic in the tools used to make rooting easy.[42]

New Zealand
New Zealand's copyright law allows the use of technological protection measure (TPM) circumvention methods as long as the use is for legal, non-copyright-infringing purposes.[43][44] This law was added to the Copyright Act 1994 as part of the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008.

See also
Android (operating system) Android Dev Phone CyanogenMod Fastboot Google Nexus Hacking of consumer electronics iOS j ilb ki [Link]

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