Code & Type

Never underestimate the politics of friendship.

Michael Sheen reprises his role as ex-British PM Tony Blair in the third film in writer Peter Morgan’s trilogy (after The Deal and The Queen). The film traces the special relationship between the USA and Britain, in the form of the friendship between Blair and Bill Clinton (played by Dennis Quaid).

The power balance between the two shifts throughout the film, beginning before Blair’s ascension to the position of prime minister and ending as Clinton leaves office. The history covered includes the British Labour party’s adoption of Democrat values, Clinton’s infamous relationship with Monica Lewinski and Blair’s growing resolve to get results in Kosovo. A version of contemporary history, behind closed doors, up close and personal.

An enjoyable and interesting film. Interesting to see the politics from when I was young, replayed on the big screen.

★★★(★) <- thats a half star… c’mon unicode!

The U.S. Copyright Office has declared Jailbreaking legal. This, in a number of ways is good news, however of little practical effect. As Gruber put it, “just because it’s legal doesn’t mean Apple must support it.”

EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers

Rulemaking Fixes Critical DMCA Wrongs

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) won three critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anticircumvention provisions today, carving out new legal protections for consumers who modify their cell phones and artists who remix videos — people who, until now, could have been sued for their non-infringing or fair use activities.

This has quickly sparked numerous stories across the internet. Apple quickly confirmed that warranties are null and void should users jailbreak their devices.

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.

This is all unremarkable and expected. But what makes things more interesting, is the response by some blogs, namely Cult of Mac.

Cult of Mac quickly responded with a Jailbreak Superguide to help their readers quickly take advantage of their new legal freedom to legally void their warranties. An article in this series, Install Pirated AppStore Apps On Your iPhone [Jailbreak Superguide], brings me to my point.

Legalised Jailbreak, exempted from DMCA, does not legalise piracy

The Cult of Mac article in question ran with the following subline

After a flood of Cult of Mac reader emails, we’ve developed this how-to guide about installing pirated iTunes Store Apps on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Included below was a brief disclaimer, suggesting “people should remunerate developers for their hard work.” This is true, and model for doing so exists – in the form of Apple’s AppStore. The article proceeds with a detailed step by step instructions on locating and installing pirated applications.

I would be interested to hear the Cult of Mac author respond, justifying the article and the value it offers to users and developers. Such articles blatantly encourage, and provide the tutelage necessary to break the law, violating the DMCA and stealing from developers.

I liken such articles to an individual teaching a stranger how hold-up a service station, telling them how great the reward is (if you don’t get caught), giving them a map to the least secured servo’s, and then saying “But remember, its probably not a clever thing to do.” That little sentence cannot completely absolve that individual. Cult of Mac is hurting the developers and community that help it survive.