Yesterday, the U.S. Copyright Office declared it perfectly legal for iPhone owners to "jailbreak" their mobile devices. In reviewing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the office said that although it may break Apple's warranty, there was no legal reason why iPhone users shouldn't be able to free their phones from the software restrictions that Apple places on them. The Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Corporation responded that jailbreaking iPhones could lead to "copyright infringement, potential damage to the device and other potential harmful physical efffects" to the device. The new ruling changes the sense of ownership that technology users have over their products.

The news today that comic author Harvey Pekar had passed away this morning had a particular resonance here at The Takeaway. Before we were even a proper show, John Hockenberry interviewed the Cleveland native for an early special we did about the 2008 election and Ohio. The man memorialized by Paul Giamatti in "American Splendor" was predictably dour about our plan to use his home state as a bellwether for the nation: He told us, "Most people in Ohio are just like the are in the rest of the country — average."

Here is the audio of John's interview with Harvey back in December 2007. And here's the comic strip he authored about the experience (in which I'm honored to have a cameo role!). Click on the image to see it properly.

We here at The Takeaway are always looking to connect with local communities. So this week we're hosting a summit with our friends at WLRN in Miami that's made possible by the Knight Foundation. We're experimenting to see how we can use text messaging as a tool for uncovering local issues that matter in Little Haiti, Miami. Can it help journalists and the communities they cover tell more compelling stories?

Simply walking around a neighborhood sounds like an easy thing to do. It's an invaluable tool for a journalist covering a local community. But it happens so rarely.

Jim here in Miami for a two-day summit we're holding on developing new sources through texting.

We've been excited about adding texting as one more way people can interact with us at the show. Now we're experimenting with ways to take that further and develop stories directly from a local community using mobile phones.

Our first stop this morning is Little Haiti, where we'll be speaking with community leaders —and anyone we stumble across — to look for stories that we can try out in the real world.

Stay tuned for updates and let us know your thoughts here!

This week, New York techies are going offline and trying to meet up in real life. Takeaway digital editor Jim Colgan attended the third annual Internet Week festival, where companies like Meet Up and FourSquare were showcasing tools that get people talking to each other. Meetup's new tool, "Meetup Everywhere," helps any organization to get its members get to know each other. It's what Meet Up's founder, Scott Heifernan, says is "using the internet to get off the internet." To make his point, he smashed an iPad on stage. Click through for video.

Facebook today announced major changes to how it manages its users' privacy. The social networking site was responding to growing criticism from users and what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today was a "need to simplify the controls."

Today, Facebook is announcing a major change to it's privacy settings in response to criticism that the site was making personal information too public and the privacy settings to complicated to figure out (Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for this on Monday). The new changes are expected to make it much easier for a user to adjust the settings. But despite the backlash against the social networking site, its fan base is still growing rapidly. Facebook had more than 500 million registered users last month — up from 400 million in September.

As part of our ongoing experiment in sharing personal information online amid this debate about privacy, we're asking a question: What benefit have you gotten from sharing information?

Are we sharing too much information on Twitter and Facebook? We're exploring the benefits and the downsides of sharing our personal lives making our private lives public. Help us in an experiment!

Seek out a stranger that you see sharing information on the internet — on Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare — anyone who catches your interest. Don't go stalking though, just reach out and ask them one question for us: What benefit does he or she get from sharing personal information publicly? Tell us what happens and we'll talk about it on the air.

Facebook users have become wary of the privacy settings on the social networking site, and now lawmakers may also be taking a closer look at the company and whether the public has enough protections on the website. Takeaway digital editor, Jim Colgan, explains how users' privacy has become less of a priority on the site since its inception, and what lawmakers can do.

Our conversation about surveillance cameras touched a nerve among our listeners, as many wrote and called in. Takeaway digital editor Jim Colgan took to the New York streets to ask people whether they knew they were being observed...

Updated 5:30pm EST

Arwa Gunja here, on the night shift.

Tomorrow we will continue our coverage on Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomb suspect. Shahzad was born in Pakistan and became a US citizen last year.  Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) is proposing a law that could strip Americans of their citizenship if they are involved with foreign terrorist organizations. We’ll speak with a professor of citizenship law to ask what the current law states about revocation and to assess the constitutionality of Lieberman’s proposal. This segment was motivated, in part, by an impassioned listener who sent sent an email to co-host Celeste Headlee this morning. He expressed his personal frustrations with Shahzad’s actions. The listener was recently naturalized himself and worries that the Times Square plot will only make the path to citizenship harder for those who are loyal to this country.  If you have recently became an American citizen or are waiting to take your Oath of Allegiance, what does citizenship mean to you? Do you worry the process will become more difficult now and those applying will be under more scrutiny now? Leave us your comments here on our website or call our comment line at 1-877-8-MYTAKE.

Even for the editor of a gadget blog, it's a list of devices worth drooling over. The search warrant for Jason Chen, the editor of the blog that posted pictures of the next generation iPhone that was left in a bar last week, made public his personal inventory of gadgets. Here's what the police hauled away, according to the warrant:

Two Macbook Pros, one MacBook, a Dell Desktop, an IBM ThinkPad, a 32 GB iPad, a 16 GB iPhone, a Motorola Droid, two digital cameras, two external hard drives, a media server, and two flash drives. A quick price search shows the total value to be about $7,600 (conservatively).

Poor Jason Chen must be having withdrawal.

Here's the full list with links to prices:

California police seized the computers of the Gizmodo editor who outed the new iPhone last week. The blogger, Jason Chen, says he's a journalist and that he should be able to protect his sources under a California shield law. Takeaway digital editor, Jim Colgan reports on the charges against the blogger and whether shield laws apply to the case.

To the Apple employee who left it, the missing phone likely started out as a familiar inconvenience for cell phone owners who enjoy libation. This was no ordinary phone to leave behind though — it was Apple's new, unreleased iPhone. Proof? Apple sent a letter to the finder, asking for it back. Takeaway digital editor Jim Colgan tells us more about how tech site Gizmodo outed the top-secret phone; an unusual occurance for a company like Apple, which is famous for keeping its unreleased new products under wraps.

Apple's iPad has been turning heads since it was released last weekend. But it seems you can't walk down the street without someone asking you about it. Takeaway web editor Jim Colgan took his new iPad onto the streets of New York to find out just how much attention it can get you.

Apple's new iPad device garnered so much interest ahead of its launch last weekend that it's almost impossible to display it in public and not get asked a million questions. Takeaway web editor Jim Colgan has been dealing with this iPad effect since he got the device last weekend. He took the new gadget to the streets of New York to see why strangers are moved to approach a complete stranger, just because he has an iPad.

Jim here (the web editor), writing the newsletter on a day that only an Irishman should.

This morning’s news about the $76 million in prescription drugs that were stolen from an Eli Lily warehouse in Connecticut caught our attention for one main reason: Why were the thieves going after anti-depressants? The black market for painkillers might be a more obvious target, given the drugs' recreational use, but who knew illicit sales of Prozac and Zyprexa could drive this kind of heist? We’ll find out more about this on tomorrow’s show.

UPDATE: We booked the White House's drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske.

UPDATED 8:00pm

Arwa Gunja here with the night shift update.

We’ve booked P.J. Crowley, State Department Spokesperson, to discuss US aid efforts to Chile. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton visited Chile today with satellite phones in hand as she pledged more US support. Reports out of the country indicate that conditions are worsening. We’re aiming to get an update from a reporter on the ground in Concepción, one of the hardest hit cities.  

We’ll also take a look at North Carolina public schools where there is a program in place to bus students based on their socio-economic background. The program has become very controversial and many parents are up in arms. There is a vote tonight to decide whether scrap the system, and tomorrow we’ll bring you the latest..

One other story likely to make headlines tomorrow is the status of marriage equality in Washington, D.C. Tomorrow will be the first day same-sex couples will be able to apply for marriage certificates. The co-chair of the DC for Marriage campaign will join us in the morning to discuss this victory for the gay community.

Finally, all day tomorrow we’re asking the question, what is one thing about your life that you want the world to know? And it seems to apply to so many of our segments tomorrow – from the survivors in Chile, to students in North Carolina being bussed based on their financial status, to the Americans living in some of America’s most depressed cities, and to the community in DC which will be adjusting to a landmark decision that will inevitably bring social change. For all our listeners, leave us a message here to tell us what we should know about your life. Or you can call us at 877-8-MYTAKE.

Hundreds are dead and 1.5 million people are displaced after one of the biggest earthquakes on record hit central Chile. Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet, says the massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake created "a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort" to recover.