iBooks blocking readers with jailbroken devices
updated 12:10 pm EST, Tue February 15, 2011
May have been implemented in 1.2.1 update
Apple is now blocking people from accessing some iBooks content if they have a hacked device, accounts say. Using greenp0ison to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 reportedly triggers a check in iBooks 1.2.1, preventing people from loading content. "There is a problem with the configuration of your iPhone," an error message reads. "Please restore with iTunes and reinstall iBooks."
A member of the unofficial iPhone Dev Team, Comex, explains that if a person tries loading a DRM-locked book on a jailbroken device, iBooks attempts to open an improperly-signed binary as a test. If the binary works, iBooks decides that a device is hacked and refuses to load the book in question. While likely implemented as an anti-piracy measure, Social Apples remarks that the change also prevents people from reading titles legitimately bought from the iBookstore. Jailbreaking is legally sanctioned in the US and some other countries.
When Apple released iBooks 1.2.1, it revealed none of the changes made to the app, instead promoting upgrades made in v1.2. The update may, in retrospect, have been made with the specific purpose of implementing anti-jailbreaking measures.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 1999
Easy Solution:
Don't use iBooks. Buy your books from one of the other stores instead. I wouldn't recommend buying iBooks in any case, since the content only works on Apple devices. At least other vendors attempt to be platform-agnostic.