Yes it is legal for phones, cars, tvs, ect, pretty much everything EXCEPT Game Consoles and Ebooks.
It has nothing to do with Backups, one again.
"
You're still not allowed to jailbreak e-readers, handheld gaming devices, or
laptops and desktop computers.
Video game consoles are also off limits, as the Library of Congress found that, "as in 2012,
opponents provided substantial evidence that console jailbreaking is closely tied to video game piracy."
The exemptions also include bypassing copyright protection methods for legally obtained video games that require authentication with a server that is no longer online. Without developer support, both customers and game historians have been unable to easily play or preserve a title with such protections in a museum or for academic study. You cannot circumvent these game protections with massively multiplayer online games, the Library of Congress confirmed, as those games tend to contain material stored directly on a company's server."
You can go deeper and read here,
"1201(a)(2). The Register also confirmed that the exemption for gamers should not extend to jailbreaking of console software because such jailbreaking is strongly associated with video game piracy."
https://copyright.gov/1201/2015/fedreg-publicinspectionFR.pdf
You can say its legal to your blue in the face, it isnt, the laws are very very clear.
Reverse Engineering a game console is Illegal.
Jailbreaking a Game Console, is Illegal,
Running CFW on a Game Console is Illegal
Modifying game data, without the express permission of a the Game developer is Illegal, unless the game is no longer supported or servers no longer accessible under certain circumstances.
these are not opinions or things I think, they are fact right there in black and white.
Hardware Modification is legal, you are 100% correct. What I posted above is not.
CFW, TX OS, Atmosphere, Fusee Gelee, those are not hardware modification, they are Software mods brought on by Reverse Engineering (Also illegal) and are known to lawmakers as "Jailbreaking" taking a devices software and allowing it to do things out side of its scope. They are all Illegal, they have zero to do with hardware modding.
You can argue all you want, your still wrong, its right there in the law, in black and white, read it and stop spreading false information.
Also Apple and Sony case ended because Hotz fled the country. Not becuase they were going to lose.
Furthermore here is this, this happened later, and precidence is set on later trials.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/08/modder-arrest-a-reminder-that-most-console-hacks-are-illegal/
"Ars spoke to Jennifer Granick, the Civil Liberties Director of the Electronic Freedom Foundation to find out. The news was bad.
"With hardware, you can do pretty much anything you want with it. There are very few rules that apply. You buy it, you own, you can take it apart, and that's perfectly fine," she explained.
The problem is that no one simply modifies the hardware. "It becomes complicated with modern hardware because it's combined with firmware, the embedded software."
The infamous DMCA states that you can't circumvent any software protection to get at the copyrighted work it protects. If you're using a software exploit or installing a mod chip, you're disabling that protection to allow yourself to run homebrew code, and you're running afoul of the DMCA. "Thou shall not circumvent," Granick told Ars, counting the two ways to break the law.
"And thou shall not provide tools to others"."
Crippen did get the case dismissed due to illegal manuevers by the customs agents, an illegal video tape, and a fair use argument. The DMCA dropped the case, however they appened the law to cover their bases in the future.
As has been pointed out, do we as users risk jail time, no not likely. Can we be sued for millions? Yes, yes we can, will we win a fight of them bricking our illegally modified console, no, no we wont. However people like Scries, They are risking serious jail time, and you should praise them for doing so without even making a profit.