The US Government is once again considering the legality of jailbreaking consoles.

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“ Jailbreaking isn’t a crime. At least, it shouldn’t be.

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“ They also concede that jailbroken consoles can also be utilized to pirate games.

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As reported by ArsTechnica , hacking proponents, along with industry members, are now fighting for proposed exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as the Copyright Office reviews Section 1201 exemptions.Jailbreaking, for those unfamiliar, allows the owner of a platform to modify – or ‘reverse engineer’ – a console, tablet, phone, or similar device, to run unsigned code. If acting within the law, this could be adding streaming functionality to the original Xbox, or running homebrew games on a PS One. The problem, the Law fears, is that by allowing users unrestricted access to unsigned code, people will modify a console so it can run – you guessed it – pirated software.“Jailbreaking isn’t a crime. At least, it shouldn’t be. But under the auspices of Section 1201, software modders and gamers have been cast as criminals—simply for taking control of a gaming system that they legally own,” writes iFixit in favour of the exemptions.“Under current copyright law,” iFixit continues, “those US airmen and university researchers could be considered and prosecuted as criminals—just for tinkering with computers in consoles.”“The Copyright Office has already recognized that jailbreaking mobile phones for personal use doesn’t violate copyright law. They affirmed that phone owners have the right to access a wider ecosystem of functionality, even if that ecosystem isn’t authorized by the manufacturer. iFixit is asking the Copyright Office to extend those same freedoms to the owners of gaming consoles. Because jailbreaking is a not a crime.”On the opposite side of the argument stands the Entertainment Software Association, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Motion Picture Association of America. The concern here, for the three companies, is that even if hackers modify with good intentions, the end result is always the same: Piracy.“While they claim that such unauthorized games are sometimes noninfringing, they also concede that ‘jailbroken consoles can also be utilized to pirate games,’” the three groups argue . “The Register should not lose sight of the fact that ‘access controls on videogame consoles not only preserve the integrity of the consoles, but also ensure the legitimacy of the content that is played on those devices.”In 2012, the Copyright Office came down on the idea of legalising the jailbreaking of home consoles, arguing that homebrew and software wasn’t enough of a reason to lift the ban. The question some have now is why are mobile phones exempt? Why is it legal to hack a phone, but not a console? The answer, as the US Register of Copyrights puts it, making a AAA console game is "a long and intensive process," when compared to "the relative ease and inexpensiveness of creating a smartphone application."The Copyright Office is currently accepting written comments / proposals until May 1. Public hearings regarding the exemptions will take place from May 19 until May 21 in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles.

Wesley Copeland is a freelance news writer, but you probably already guessed that. For more obvious statements, you should probably follow him on Twitter