Once the hobby of tech geeks, iPhone jailbreaking now a lucrative industry
By Ian Shapira, Thursday, April , 11:30 PM
Kevin Lee, a George Mason University senior, says he earns about $50,000 a year with an illicit-sounding pitch on Craigslist: "Get Your iPhone Jailbroken Today."
Within minutes, the computer science major can download code onto his customers' iPhones and fling open the portal to an alternative world of apps and software that Apple condemns. The jailbreak perks include: tethering the iPhone's Internet connection to a laptop or iPad without paying extra AT&T charges; swapping out the AT&T or Verizon service for a cheaper carrier; or, customizing the iPhone with 3-D screens, bouncing icons or funkier fonts.
An early form of jailbreaking started shortly after Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007, but the practice has now evolved into a lucrative industry with millions of consumers. Quashing many doubts about jailbreaking's legality, the Library of Congress ruled in July that the practice did not violate Apple's copyright.
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