It's a violation of the DMCA to break DRM. Actually, I think it is technically in violation of the DMCA, but the Library of Congress recently gave a 3-year exception to jailbreaking phones. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/07/apple-loses-...
Be careful with that. The exemptions do not absolve you from the "trafficking" provisions of the DMCA according to the Library of Congress. So you're allowed to do it, but not to "traffic" in the necessary tools (or software) to actually make it happen.
Yes, that is really, really stupid. Don't just take my word for it:
Perhaps you are making reference to some papers they filed with the U.S. Copyright Office that noted that modified copies of Apple software are used in the process of jail-breaking. The claim was that the process was copyright infringement.
Note that this is different from saying that it is criminal. Under U.S. copyright law, not every infringement is criminal. In fact, criminal infringements are the exception, not the rule.
So, as far as I know, they did not claim what you say they claim. Unless you have a good citation to the contrary, that is.
