To Hack a Smartphone or Not to Hack?
The smartphone has gone mainstream, but that is only a recent phenomenon. For years, smartphones were the realm of the techie enthusiast who was willing to spend the money and time needed to fully exploit the capabilities of these mini-computers. What many smartphone owners today may not be aware of is there is a full community of smartphone hackers who are constantly expanding what can be done with just about every smartphone out there. Those willing to experiment with their phones can quickly learn that there is a lot going on with their particular phone behind the scenes.
These hackers are not the black hat hackers out to do harm to anyone. No, these hackers are trying to expand what can be done with these smartphones with just a little effort. A lot of the effort is expended to get around the OS fragmentation we’ve mentioned before. A given phone may get the latest and greatest version of an OS but only in select markets, leaving owners in other countries or with other carriers out in the cold. The fact is, smartphone owners don’t have to be penalized by factors out of their control; if a given phone has a particular version of an OS anywhere in the world, hackers have made it possible for any phone owner to put it on their phone.
I’m not going to get into the morality or legality of doing this. Almost all of the people who hack their phone to put software otherwise unavailable do so for the reason I mentioned. Some do it to live on the cutting edge of technology available at a given time. It is a huge community of enthusiasts working together to get the most out of any phone. And don’t think it’s only a few phones being hacked; it’s a safe bet that once a given phone is released, it is being hacked right away. Sometimes the phones are getting “unofficially updated” before they are widely released. It is an amazing ecosystem that is well-connected and very technically savvy.
We’ve all heard of jail-breaking the iPhone. Many owners have done so to unleash functionality not readily available from Apple. The hacking I am referring to is very similar to this jail-breaking; it’s just not called that on phones other than the iPhone. How integrated into the smartphone world is this hacking? You know that new HTC Hero phone just announced this week? The one with the cool UI that HTC has rolled out for Android, HTC Sense? That UI is already available for any Android phone in the hacking community. It has been for a while, as a matter of fact.
Now, I am not recommending that anyone hack their phone, especially not their only phone. This can be a very unstable process that can easily brick your phone. Hacked versions of phone software are often early beta versions, complete with bugs. When you hack a phone, you are replacing all tested software and firmware with totally user-derived versions, and they may not work as intended. However, if you are a technically savvy enthusiast with a spare phone around, it can be a lot of fun. I’m just saying.
IMHO, there is a *major* difference between jailbreaking my iPhone (which I did) and putting the HTC GUI on my Google ION (which I didn’t): the latter is stealing software from HTC that I have no rights to, the former is “tweaking” software I paid for.
I’m afraid it’s not up to each of us to decide if we are “tweaking” or violating the licenses we have. I don’t believe there is any difference between jailbreaking your iPhone (which is against your license and likely your carrier TOS) and doing things not intended and putting on hacked software.
I am not advocating doing either but you do so at your own risk for certain.
Really? You see no difference? That’s a bit surprising.
Let me use an analogy: you buy a car from GM and part of the contract is that you cannot repaint it in any color other than the ones provided as official colors by FGM. You decide you want your Cadillac to be pink and thus go to Kragen Autoparts, buy some pink paint, and “hack” your car. So you violated the agreement you had with GM and they can sue you in civil court for that.
But you also want bigger tires, and since you spent all your money on the paint, you now go steal some that are offered for sale by your neighborhood Ford dealership (who you’d never dealt with before).
When you’re “hacking” your Google phone with HTC’s software, you’re not violating a contract or license (you never had one for the software you’re installing), you’re stealing software.
As far as jailbreaking my phone is concerned, I may be fully aware of this being in violation of an agreement with AT&T and Apple, because I am a geek. But do you really think that the majority of the iPhone user community would see it that way? As far as they are concerned, they are running a free program on their computer and the end-result is they can do new things with their iPhone. I do that on my Windows PC all the time. Do you check every time you install/run a new Windows app whether it will do something to your Windows operating system that would violate an agreement with Microsoft you clicked through months ago? I sure don’t.
On the other hand, if I download MacOS from PirateBay and put that on my Windows PC machine, I am very well aware of the fact that I am stealing someone else’s software. I’d hope you’re, too!?
By the way, the *only* reason I have redsn0wed (and then ultrasno0wed) my iPhone is so I can use my prepaid SIM cards when traveling abroad, instead of using one of my other unlocked GSM phones. I am not taking away any money from Apple or AT&T, and so while I likely am violating some clause of my contract or license, I don’t feel that I am morally wrong (and they are welcome to suing me for any damages).
With respect Oliver, the problem with your analogy is that it employs ‘natural law’ fallacies to imply that the contours of intellectual property are as simple and obvious as the contours of physical property.
Kids learn from an early age that physical objects can be owned and controlled (and therefore, stolen); in a sense this gives rise to a natural definition of “steal” that might be prior to the law of theft.
But intellectual property – who owns and controls ideas – is artificially created by the law, apparently to promote innovation through competition. Exceptions like “fair use” are created by the law to promote innovation through freedom. It isn’t intuitive that certain uses of certain ideas are like stealing the rims from someone else’s car, while other uses of ideas are as harmless as an unauthorized paint.
JK’s perspective is correct: both jailbreaking and porting unlicensed interfaces are examples of EULA violations, and their legal and ethical ramifications are similar. If you think that only one is “stealing” because of some difference in deprivation, think again: HTC’s fiscal loss from unlicensed use of the Hero UI is primarily theoretical (allegedly decreasing sales of the Hero device by reducing its competitive uniqueness vis-a-vis hacked Android phones) and so is Apple’s from jailbreaking (allegedly decreasing future app sales and licensing by giving users an alternative route to increasing device functionality).
I am definitely on the same page as Benjamin. Just unlocking most phones is a violation of contract and give the carriers the right to terminate your contract. Thats just a simple fact.
As far as stealing software!? Every site I use is very strict on unlicensed software, they flat out do not allow it. Since most of the software and operating systems we use are beta, therefore available for testing, they are not the final licensable product. Look at the Windows 7 RC1 how many people are using that? It is a free licensed product, right now, available for the masses to test.
Also stating: you unlocked your phone to use prepaid sim cards for abroad, which I am taking a guess are not from ATT. So if you want to look at it that way, yes you are taking theoretic money away from them.
There’s also a ton of possibility for hacking the Pre, as I’m sure you know. Pretty much anything that we don’t like about it (except for the service– not something that affects me though) can be changed.
I have loaded probably 30+ different OS releases on my Touch Pro. It really does unleash capabilities of a phone often limited by carriers. Mostly to force users to use their software which gets quite expensive. I believe its my bought and paid for phone. I will do with it what I want. I have heard with Windows Mobile 7 Microsoft is going to have automatic updates available for the phones, which will force to carriers to not go to proprietary. I currently am running Mobile 6.5 beta 21812 which provides much more funcationality than 6.1 it makes great use of the TouchFlo in the phone also providing a cleaner ui. Some functionalities are still not usable even with running new beta hardware; multitouch is an example, which from what I have read the whole front of the Touch Pro is a multitouch surface. Maybe one day…
Touch Pro screen is just a normal resistive touch screen, no multitouch there. But the hardware buttons part of diamond is multitouch.
For the rest i agree with you.
Ya that may be what I saw, but I thought, which definitely could be wrong that the whole front of the touch pro supported multi touch. http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/20/htcs-touch-diamond-pro-are-multi-touch-gods-just-not-how-you/ So ya I guess it is just the track area.
The license agreements on S/W these days seems to be living documents that change with the wind to protect their authors. Luckily the iPhone 3.0 codebase is so good there is little need to jailbreak anymore.
No charge for this lesson. I consider it a public service.
- The Bus Driver
“I take everyone to school”
If you buy and pay for an entire car; including engine,
radio, seats, window glass etc. then you should be able
to use every item.
Some Phone companies would sell you this “entire” car,
but disable to radio, unless you pay $10 a month to
enable (something you have already paid for) it for use,
charge you extra for the 4th tire, and shut down your
engine after exceeding your alloted mileage….
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;
Also, to compare to some computer programs.
You have bought the car, but you cannot loan it to a friend, nor are you allowed to resell it, or return it
if it doesn’t live up to it’s advertised specs
“”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”
“”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”
As far as the tires, you have taken something that has
been already physically manufactured, where as using a
pirated copy of software,(while illegal) you have not
physically deprived the manufacturer of something
physically manufactured(minus cost of .04 plastic disc……
OTHER
……..than his development costs, advertising and
promotion, payroll, equipment, and time invested to
make the program…..
Hmmmmm
……maybe th pirate did deprive the software developer something
If i purchase a piece of hardware i should be able to load any software me wants onto it, including tethering. It sounds like the average Joe Consumer needs a bill of rights before we get stomped on by the telcos.
So much of this seems quite fluid, especially when an OEM uses a core of open source software. They are counting on both people obeying their mandates, and developers taking advantage of capabilities they don’t care to invest in developing themselves. It’s infuriating to know your phone (or computer or whatever) has a capability you’d enjoy, but are locked out of by service provider unwilling to develop it.
I suspect the legal situation, however, is less fluid than the facts on the ground, though corporations will have to be wary of their own creation of bad customer relations.
If not for XDA-dev, there would be a much smaller market of WinMo phones. Critical things like OS updates are only given to enthusiastic vendors and/or new models. If MS had treated WinCE like Windows, it would have been way ahead instead of succumbing to what vendors were too lazy to do, and HTC took up most of the slack.
BTW, breaking your licence or stealing software, it’s either all or nothing, since both are legally “there”, so I agree with JK’s view.
As the HTC Hero is based on Android, which is open source is the HTC surface not propably also open source?
If I want to hack my Phone, that’s my business. I paid for the device, and for the line of code the OS is written in. If I want to alter it for my own means, that’s my right, and no fine print can tell me other wise.
It becomes a issue when others are distributing software the OEM’s or other companys sell/make available for a cost or fee.
For instance, my Stock rom on a WM device did not come with Tom Tom pre-installed, and I get a Rom with it installed for free. Tom Tom is a program you otherwise have to pay for, so getting it for free IS steeling.
But lets say I get a Hacked rom that simply runs more “smoothly” has freeware programs installed, and has more customization feature added to it( once again not a chargable feature from some other company or OEM)
That should be ok.
Just like if I want to Jail-Break my Iphone to make it work with other freeware applications it would other wise not be able to use. Or even paid versions from companies apple has not supported. Apple got their money from me for the device/os, I’m not steeling from them, nor from these other companies because the software I am putting on my jail borken Iphone is already made available for free, or I am paying those third party companies for the use of it on my jail-broken Iphone.