CrystalPrison
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The EFF on Apple's "crystal prison"
The EFF takes on Apple and its locked down ecosystem in a long essay on its website. The article calls out Apple and Microsoft for imposing "an ugly set of restrictions" on what users and programmers can do with mobile devices. The EFF also accuses the two companies of providing unacceptable excuses for why they must establish these rules. For iOS owners, the only escape from this crystal prison, says the EFF, is jailbreaking, which lets an iOS device install apps from a variety of sources including the popular jailbreak app repository Cydia. To free mobile devices from this tyranny, the EFF proposes a bill of rights for mobile computer owners that'll let consumers use a mobile device any way they see fit. Under this bill, consumer rights include the installation of arbitrary applications on the device, access to the phone OS at the root/superuser/hypervisor/administrator level, the option to install a different OS altogether and hardware warranties that are clearly independent of software warranties. The group calls on Apple to innovate in this area like it does in hardware and software design. It asks the Cupertino company to lead the way by adopting a new openness that gives users the right to modify their device.
