Although the US saw a new ruling from the Library of Congress last week, which stated that the action of “jailbreaking” a device like the iPhone was not in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and was therefore completely legal, Paul McDougall of InformationWeek reports that Apple is not budging on its policies.

So much so, the company is now warning jailbreakers could be in for bricked devices in the future, if they continue.

In a statement, the company reportedly said that jailbreaking was still in “violation of the company’s terms of service and that [Apple] reserves the right to terminate service to jailbreakers”.

“It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of the iOS is a violation of the Phone end-user license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software,”

McDougall notes the statement comes as Apple has recognised the efforts of @Comex and the recently released jailbreak ‘Star’.

The issue came to the foreground over the past weekend when a developer, who goes by the name Comex, released a new jailbreaking app. Known as Jailbreakme 2.0, the software is built to allow iPhone users to download and use applications that have not been through Apple’s normal approval process.

Jailbreakme 2.0 works with iPhone 4, as well as iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch devices that have been upgraded to iOS 4, which is the newest operating system for Apple’s mobile products. The developer is also working on a version for the iPad.

Demand for the app is such that Comex’s Web site, Jailbreakme.com, has been crashing occasionally. “Um, I rebooted the server, let’s see if it comes back up,” Comex wrote Sunday in a post on his Twitter page, which has more than 60,000 followers.

The stakes are high. Apple keeps about 30% of the revenue from paid downloads from its iTunes App Store, but obviously receives nothing from unofficial apps distributed by third parties.

[Update] – As noted by a number of our readers, the source article we took this from appears to have a misleading title. Apple don’t necessarily state they will “brick” devices, but rather “deny service” to those with jailbroken devices. Meaning if you mess up, it wouldn’t be at Apple’s expense … it’ll be at your own.

[via InformationWeek]