http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/iphone-hack/
overlooked and lurking behind this gadget envy is an important regulatory decision -- one expected in weeks on whether to authorize an iPhone jailbreak.
Apple said sanctioning an iPhone operating system hack would gut its business model. That plan has given way to more than 2 billion app downloads, in addition to an expected and much-rumored iPhone-like tablet.
"This would severely limit our ability to continue what we are doing as well as innovate for the future," Greg Joswiak, an Apple marketing czar, recently told regulators considering the jailbreaking proposal before the U.S. Copyright Office.
At stake for Apple is the very closed business model the Cupertino, California-based electronics concern has enjoyed since 2007, when the iPhone debuted.
The proposal, brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, would pave the way for third-party apps on the iPhone -- hence turning the iPhone into a blank slate to run whatever its owner wishes. That would be a huge financial blow, as Apple earns 30 percent for every App sold from its proprietary iTunes store, Joswiak said.
The proposed hack is part of the exemption process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Every three years, the Librarian of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office entertain proposals for exemptions to copyright law.