Is Rooting Android Phones and Tablets Legal?

Home Blog News Is Rooting Android Phones and Tablets Legal?
Is Rooting Android Phones and Tablets Legal?

Is Rooting Android Phones and Tablets Legal?

Those of you following tech news of late will have seen some rather disturbing articles that as of January 26th, 2013, it is now illegal to unlock cell phones in the US without carrier permission. We’ve been getting a lot of questions recently on how this applies to rooting, particularly as in the same DMCA rounds, many news sources have been announcing that rooting tablets is illegal. Such articles make for great shock headlines, but there is a lot of confusion and sensationalism which has caused a lot of people to get the wrong information. We have consulted with our own legal team, as well as numerous experts in the field, to try and bring some clarity to the situation.

First of all, please understand that unlocking and rooting/jailbreaking are entirely different things. The recently DMCA update, which does make it illegal to unlock a smartphone in the US without carrier permission, and carries some incredibly steep penalties, has no bearing on on rooting. The act of unlocking a phone means to remove a carrier lock in order to be able to switch providers; rooting, meanwhile, is merely a modification of the operating system permissions and has no bearing on your carrier.

Is it legal to root? Despite the scary news headlines, nothing has gotten worse in terms of making rooting illegal. The DMCA status on rooting merely did not change. The Rooting of phones has been ruled to be completely legal, and given full exemption from any prosecution under the DMCA. With tablets it gets a little more confusing, but it’s not as bad news as many sources have reported. Rooting tablets has NOT been ruled to be illegal. What has happened is they have not been given an exemption from the DMCA. What this means is that theoretically someone could file a civil case under the DMCA for rooting a tablet. The chances of this happening are extremely slim for the following reasons:

  1. Android tablets have existed and been rooted openly since the operating system was first created in 2009. As far as we know, there are no cases of someone being sued for it. Given that there was no change to the legal status of rooting tablets, we do not anticipate this changing
  2. Android has always been marketed as an open platform encouraging development and modification. Trying to ban rooting would not only be a PR nightmare for Android and the device manufacturers, it could potentially do serious harm to the brand and its long term market share. They have no incentive to do so.
  3. The DMCA actually wanted to provide exemption for tablets to guarantee the legality of rooting them. The only reason they did not was because the EFF failed to create a concise definition of a tablet, and the Library of Congress did not want to pass an overly broad exemption that could have unintended consequences.
  4. Many Android devices ship with unlocked bootloaders to encourage modification, and manufacturers such as HTC provide their own tools to unlock the bootloaders. As such, in these cases, where open development and rooting is encouraged, they are unactionable under the DMCA
  5. In and of itself, rooting a tablet is not illegal. Circumvention of DRM is what’s prohibited by the DMCA

Basically, what this all means, is that while there theoretically could be issues with rooting tablets, the chances are extremely slim, and there is absolutely no need to worry at least until a manufacturer actually tries to sue someone. Furthermore, given the nature of the major companies involved, I’m sure most people would agree that if anyone is going to try and sue someone for rooting a tablet, it’d be Apple.

Finally, one last question we keep being asked. Does any of this effect me if I live outside the US? In most cases, no it does not. Not only is this strictly a US ruling, many countries do have laws that explicitly allow unlocking of phones, as well as forbidding carrier locks, locked bootloaders, as well as laws that allow jailbreaking and rooting of devices.

If further information becomes available in the coming days and weeks we will update this post, but for now, it’s the same status quo as far as rooting Android devices is concerned.

What’s your opinion on the recent DMCA ruling, we’d love to hear from you. Let us know in the comments!

9 Comments

  1. arashsays: April 3, 2014 at 10:49 pm

    Help me
    Asus fonepad me371
    Noting root

  2. atifsays: December 7, 2014 at 6:55 am

    rooted device in uk will not show skygo bbc or itv as they belive DMA copyright so will not work on rooted devices

  3. jaymansays: March 22, 2015 at 6:25 am

    So glad that it is still legal. It is Impossible to find a mobile screen recorder that needs no root. Plus it allows me to update to lollipop.

  4. Punkrokusays: June 13, 2015 at 6:06 am

    I am going to flout the law… If I want to root my device put me in jail and waste taxpayer money.

    This whole cuntry is turning into a b word. Lady Liberty is the symbol of hypocrisy where the put all the patriots in prison the blue square on the flag. The red make the rules and the guidelines to which all those that surrendered freedom of choice and liberty to abide by the false religion of law which is more a matter of money than justice –THE WHITE live linear lives under and between the guide and rule of THE RED – LOBSTERBACKS!

    PUT THE FREE IN JAIL FOR BEING PATRIOTS and the CALL THE COUNTRY WITH THE MOST PEOPLE IN PRISON IN THE WORLD —
    THE LAND OF THE FREE

    WTF HAPPENED – Hypocrisy USED TO BE DEMOCRACY

  5. srtsrtsffesays: June 20, 2015 at 11:43 am

    Try mobizen screen recorder on the play store no root needed

    • brucesays: October 25, 2016 at 2:48 pm

      But Mobizen needs a PC.

  6. Brodisays: January 19, 2016 at 11:47 pm

    Hello i want to root my LG Tribute 2 In the US is it legal can someone find me proof please

Leave a comment

>