Apple Bans Jailbreakers From the App Store 507
Hugh Pickens writes "Adam Mills writes in the Examiner that Apple has been cutting off access to the iTunes App Store for iPhone hackers and jailbreakers. Sherif Hashim, the iPhone developer who successfully hacked the iPhone OS 3.1.3 and unlocked the 05.12.01 baseband for iPhone 3GS and 3G devices, discovered he'd been cut off and twittered: '"Your Apple ID was banned for security reasons," that's what i get when i try to go to the app store, they must be really angry.' Another hacker, iH8Sn0w, who is behind the Sn0wbreeze tool, confirms that his account has also been deactivated even though iH8sn0w's exploit had only been revealed to Dev Team, the group responsible for the PwnageTool. 'It is kind of surprising that two people associated with jailbreaking have had this happen to them so soon after one another, but it's too early to say if this is a campaign that Apple is starting up,' writes Mills."
Figured it'd happen (Score:4, Interesting)
Kind of silly, IMO. You're going to ban people from possibly paying for apps? Not every app is jailbroken, some are cracked incorrectly (some of the antipiracy mechanisms in apps I've seen are nothing short of hilarious trolling), and some are out of date. Additionally, if an app is really good, a user may buy the app to support the dev.
So you ban people and what happens? People jailbreak all the free apps too.
Seems like a bad move on Apple's part.
No proof (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed, and see this Apple KB article [apple.com]:
So who's to say it's not someone just messing with these guys? All it takes is a few bad login attempts to temporarily disable ANY Apple ID.
And even if Apple was disabling just these Apple IDs, it's clearly not of all people with jailbroken devices, else we would know about it; instead it's specific, individual people (who are probably in violation of Apple's terms of service for Apple IDs).
Re:So they should (Score:3, Interesting)
But the majority of them cost, what, £5? Maybe £7 or £9?
More like £1.
From Apple's point of view, jailbreaking is a means of piracy and exploiting AT&T's bandwidth for things like tethering, and a possible vector for attack.
From free software advocates' point of view, jailbreaking is the freedom to install software that Apple/AT&T wouldn't approve.
From everyone else's point of view, it's a non-issue.
I can definitely relate to those who'd like to run any code they want on their phone, but IMHO they should really just cough up the money for a dev license. $99 isn't that much if you're already spending $1000/year for service.
On the other hand, I can't see how Apple or anyone else would benefit by blocking jailbreakers from App Store. Maybe Apple canceled their developer accounts, which are attached to Apple IDs, and blocking the App Store was just a side effect.
Re:So they should (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I can't wait for my contract to expire (Score:5, Interesting)
Cite that please. You're arguing that they make little to no money from content distribution through iTunes? I think you're full of it.
Sure. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/steve-jobs-tries-to-downplay-the-itunes-stores-profit/ [nytimes.com] ...is an article where a NYT pundit postulates that despite Apple having publicly stated they make little money on the operation, he thinks they might actually be making a billion dollars a year (they make 25 billion or so a year as a company). Be sure to read the update at the end where he acknowledges he was mostly wrong after someone explained to him how much credit card transaction fees cost.
Re:I don't believe it (Score:3, Interesting)
how is this different than MS banning hacked consoles from XBL
See, that whole thing really pissed me off. Instead of banning hacked consoles from Live entirely, why not just ban them from having a Gold account and allow them to keep a silver account? That way, people with hacked consoles can still pay Microsoft for downloadable games and DLC, yet can't "cheat" during multiplayer.
To what purpose does it serve to ban people from Live ENTIRELY instead of putting them on permanent silver account status? I can completely understand banning hacked consoles from multiplayer, but why ban them from the store as well?
Re:I don't believe it (Score:3, Interesting)
Except long term I have a feeling the carriers are going to be hijacking Android and only allowing apps from "their" app stores. There is simply too much money in apps and the carriers are going to muscle their way in some how. They don't want to be just dump pipes. We've finally seen unlimited voice plans fall to what I had been paying for 700 minutes of family talk.
Re:Not surprised... (Score:1, Interesting)
They can do multitasking and are not banned from anything (maybe even except Apple because this is only two cases).
First... All Apple products don't exist in an "Apple bubble". Only the iPhone and iPod Touch, UNJAILBROKEN do. Even this is a moot point for you to make since the choices are vastly greater in the "Apple Bubble" than on any other phone. Since when has more choices been bad? The only reason I have an iPhone is because I have more apps to dl than any other phone, at the moment. When this changes I'll change phones.
I think you're just as bad as any Apple Devotee's with your Anti-Apple attitude. Really, just because it's made by Apple is a stupid reason to reject the technology. How about making an open decision about the product as it stands in the market? How about a powerful phone with full touch screen and more apps than any other device? Android is catching up and as soon as my contract is up I expect Android to have a better dev platform. At that point I'll probably switch. How about thinking about things before you blindly bash Apple? K?
HEY! I've seen that message! (Score:1, Interesting)
I've had the exact same message!
OMG! Apple is punishing me for NOT jailbreaking my iPhone, and NOT doing anything illegal with my machine and MobileMe account!
Keep digging that hole for yourself, Apple.
Sheesh. So somebody figured they'd try and log into some fairly prominent hackers' MobileMe account, and three incorrect passwords disabled the ID.
And now, it's all over the net, because these morons are known by their real names and dumb enough to sense massive paranoia (OMG it's almost like they feel they're doing something wrong innit?)
FWIW: Give me your MobileMe username - i.e. your email addy, or even just a reasonable guess, and I can make you see that very same message in a few seconds. Wanna bet?
Re:I don't believe it (Score:3, Interesting)
Hah...I jailbroke my iPod...but the app store has _never_ worked with it. Even when it's not jailbroken, on several different firmware versions, the app store app on the iPod itself just causes the whole device to lock up, and the app store on iTunes just makes iTunes crash. If I wanted a paid app I wouldn't have much choice but to pirate it...I never have, and it's even less likely that I will now as the hardware of the thing's already going to shit (I have 3rd generation original iPods that still work perfectly, but the friggin' touch won't last more than two years. WTG Apple.)
Re:Believe it (Score:3, Interesting)
I think you overestimate Apple's market position. Sure, in portable music players, iPod is king. HOWEVER, in mobile phones? iPhone is popular but it has a LOT of stiff competition. Android is rising fast - there are still tons of people who still prefer BlackBerries. Even more just take whatever is one sale. Apple isn't the behemoth in this market that some people believe them to be. They are exactly what they were back in the 1980's computer market: a solid competitor with good market share. Close-mindedness and a cocky attitude took that position and flushed it back then. They are starting to show the same signs again. This is NOT the Apple that rose from the ashes back in 2000. This is a different beast that has emerged and if they misstep, people will dump them once again.
Re:Figured it'd happen (Score:5, Interesting)
So you're willing to protest when you get cut off but not when the guys whose software freed your phone get cut off?
It's a matter of scale and purpose. Someone hacking their own device and keeping that action to themselves is a single event. Someone making tools and enabling others (most likely people who couldn't do it in the first place) to hack their device is a manifold increase in the number of hacks, possibly also enabling further, deeper hacks of the device and network security.
There's no hard and fast cutoff as to what I would consider a reasonable degree of a company's ability to defend its closed system. When we are talking about cellular networks it wouldn't take much to cause major problems, even legitimate users can bring down the system. Add in people changing the software in unanticipated ways and then DISTRIBUTING those changes and you can easily cause havoc. On the other hand, stuff like DeCSS which enables a person to make backups of their DVDs has a less direct effect upon other users. It can still cause problems with piracy and such but it's not going to suddenly make everyone's DVDs unusable.
In this case I think that perhaps the iPhone hackers broke the terms of service of the iTunes Store and they had their accounts terminated. Apple has a right to do this, it's spelled out in the TOS. As long as they use it selectively for major infractions I'm not too worried about it, it's when they use it to ban every single little violation that I'll be worried. Is that arbitrary? Perhaps but everyone draws the line somewhere.
Finally, I don't jailbreak. If I didn't care for Apple's rules I wouldn't have bought the iPhone in the first place. If I wanted a more open device there are some out there and I would have gotten one. My iPhone works just fine for me without hacking anything.
Re:I don't believe it (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not people that jailbreak their iPhones that are being blocked from the app store, it's the people that make the software to jailbreak iPhones that are being blocked.
Or that is what they claim - the message they get is the same one gets when somebody has tried to login with the wrong password too many times. Gee, what are the chances that giving out your email adress (which happens to be your Apple ID) among a group of hackers could lead to one of the guys trying to hack your account?
Re:I don't believe it (Score:3, Interesting)
So a clear majority of jailbroken phones have no pirated apps at all, or as the article states "There are more people who just want extra control over their device and not an opportunity to steal apps." And of those who do pirate, they used paid apps more frequently than the pirated ones.
Removing access to the store would result in 100% piracy rate on jailbroken phones. So exactly how is removing store access combatting piracy?