Pluralistic: Jailbreaking isn't theft (25 Jun 2026)
Cory Doctorow argues that jailbreaking devices is not "theft of IP" but a key tool for Canadian digital sovereignty. He notes Apple was founded on selling phone-fraud devices yet now profits from laws that criminalize competing products. Legalizing jailbreaking, he says, could reduce reliance on US tech platforms and generate billions.
Background
- Cory Doctorow is a Canadian-British author, journalist, and activist who writes extensively about technology, digital rights, and corporate power. His blog Pluralistic covers tech policy, surveillance, and "enshittification" — his term for how platforms degrade as they extract more value from users.
- "Jailbreaking" means removing software restrictions on a device (like an iPhone) so the owner can install apps or make modifications the manufacturer doesn't allow. In many countries, including Canada, anti-circumvention laws derived from US trade agreements make jailbreaking illegal.
- The key context: Canada's 2012 Copyright Modernization Act criminalized jailbreaking as part of trade concessions to the US. Doctorow argues this leaves Canada vulnerable because Donald Trump can now order US tech companies (Apple, Microsoft, Google) to remotely disable Canadians' devices and cloud accounts — a real sovereignty threat.
- The "Blue Box" anecdote: Apple was founded with money from selling devices that illegally tricked AT&T's phone system — "toll theft." Doctorow uses this to argue that a company built on circumvention now uses law to ban others from doing the same.