Three blocks jailbreakme.com for Iphone users

STEVE JOBS' WALLED GARDEN has allies among mobile network operators and the Three network has apparently blocked access to jailbreakme.com, the home of software that as the name suggests will jailbreak your Iphone.

Three has confirmed a claim made first on a social notworking website and which The INQUIRER has independently checked, that the mobile network is blocking jailbreakme.com. Tests by The INQUIRER showed that rather than point users to jailbreakme.com at its address of 174.35.52.142, the Three network sends its users to 92.41.252.3, that is, back to the network operator's own website.

The network told The INQUIRER, "Yes we have tried using our Iphones in the office and we can't get to the website, we are trying to find out why that is."

The INQUIRER's massive legal department was already off to play golf when we called, so we can't be sure, but one might conjecture that Three could be in breach of its contract with its customers over this arbitrary censorship of one website.

If this is not a network error but rather deliberate, such an action by Three represents a step towards web censorship by network operators and handset providers that is a foreboding example of what could happen if net neutrality ends. Competing corporate interests would create a divided Internet based on deals done behind closed doors and hidden by commercial confidentiality.

Apple has already been working hard to stop Iphone jailbreaking and released the IOS 4 fix 4.0.2 last week. The official reason Apple released the 4.0.2 patch for the Iphone, Ipod Touch and Ipad IOS 3 firmware was to block a pair of remote code execution flaws in the IOS PDF viewer and IOSurface components. They can be exploited by malware. But the patch also stopped jailbreaking software from working on Idevices.

Jailbreakme 2.0 only works on IOS 4.0.1 but hackers have already found a way round IOS 4.0.2 for some Apple products. Because Apple hasn't also updated the baseband, the older 05.13.04 baseband patch that accompanies IOS 4.0.2 means the IOS patch is unlockable. This leaves the Iphone 3G and Ipod Touch 2G vulnerable to the latest version of the jailbreak software Redsn0w. And the Iphone 3G will be vulnerable even if it uses IOS 4.0.2. µ