The U.S. government has today officially announced it has made the process of jailbreaking an iPhone to run non Apple-certified software and functionality, legal.

Apple Insider reports via the Associated Press that the US government has today approved a few new exceptions to the circumvention of modifying copyrighted works, making it legal in certain areas.

One of those exceptions is Apple’s iPhone, jailbreaking and the App Store alternative Cydia, created by Jay Freeman.

Other exemptions announced Monday allow people to break protections on video games to investigate or correct security flaws; allow college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break copy protection measures on DVDs to embed clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos; and allow computer owners to bypass the need for external security devices (dongles) if the hardware no longer works and cannot be replaced.

The warranty-voiding jailbreak process allows users to run software not approved by Apple, which has no plans to allow users to install third-party applications downloaded from outside its sanctioned App Store. Hackers have created their own custom applications — many free, and some for purchase from an alternative storefront known as Cydia.

[via @AppleInsider]