US copyright law was modified on Monday to make it legal to hack smartphones such as the iPhone to switch telecom service providers or install applications without Apple's approval.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) revision came despite opposition from Apple, which argued that allowing iPhones to be hacked will open handsets to security holes, computer viruses, and hardware damage.

AT&T is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the United States and Monday's move would allow what is known as "jailbreaking," or unlocking smartphones exclusively bound to specific telecom service providers.

"The Copyright Office recognizes that the primary purpose of the locks on cell phones is to bind customers to their existing networks, rather than to protect copyrights," said Jennifer Granick of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an Internet rights group that fought for the change.

Revisions to the act also allow tampering with electronic book readers to enable text-to-speech features that read stories aloud.

It was also made legal to bypass anti-copying technology on DVDs in the cases of documentaries, non-commercial works, and videos used for educational purposes by colleges.

"We are thrilled to have helped free jailbreakers, unlockers and vidders from this law's overbroad reach," Granick said.

"By granting all of EFF's applications, the Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress have taken three important steps today to mitigate some of the harms caused by the DMCA."

Apple steadfastly opposes breaching of safeguards built into iPhones and is still free to enforce terms of service agreed to by buyers.

Apple argued in a letter to the Copyright Office, which is in the Library of Congress, that allowing iPhones to be hacked will destroy a "chain of trust" the company has with customers.

AT&T's share price was down a fraction of a percent in after-hours trading in New York on Monday while that of rival Sprint Nextel rose nearly eight percent during the day's trading to slightly more than five dollars a share.

earlier related report

EU probes IBM over 'abuse' of market power
Brussels (AFP) July 26, 2010 –

European competition enforcers announced on Monday they were probing computer giant IBM on two separate cases relating to antitrust infringements.

"The European Commission has decided to initiate formal antitrust investigations against IBM Corporation in two separate cases of alleged infringements of EU antitrust rules related to the abuse of a dominant market position," it said in a statement.

The charges relate to the firm's mainframe computer business, following complaints by rival software makers T3 and Turbo Hercules as well as commission concerns over IBM's relations with maintenance suppliers.

US-based IBM rejected the accusations and said the complaints were part of a Microsoft-driven campaign to "cement the dominance of Wintel servers" in the market at IBM's expense.

"IBM will not allow the fruits of its innovation and investment to be pirated by its competition through baseless allegations," the company said in a release.

"There is no merit to the claims being made by Microsoft and its satellite proxies."

Mainframes, the huge computers used by governments and big companies, is a market worth some 8.5 billion euros (11 billion dollars) worldwide in 2009, and some three billion euros just in Europe.

"IBM is alleged to have engaged in illegal tying of its mainframe hardware products to its dominant mainframe operating system," the EU said, with the complainants arguing the practice "shuts out providers of emulation technology which could enable the users to run critical applications on non-IBM hardware."

Brussels also fears IBM is "keeping potential competitors out of the market… in particular by restricting or delaying access to spare parts for which IBM is the only source."

IBM countered it is rightfully defending its intellectual property rights.

"Certain IBM competitors which have been unable to win in the marketplace through investments in fundamental innovations now want regulators to create for them a market position that they have not earned," IBM said.

"IBM is fully entitled to enforce its intellectual property rights and protect the investments we have made in our technologies."

IBM vowed to cooperate fully with inquiries in the European Union.

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