News
Unlocking phone without carrier OK to become illegal
By Phil Dzikiy
News Editor, iLoungeGoogle+
Published: Friday, January 25, 2013
News Categories: iPhone
Starting on January 26, 2013, a policy update to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act will make it illegal for owners of new cellphones to unlock their devices unless authorized by their carriers. Approved in October, the new policy applies to newly purchased devices, but not to smartphones owned prior to the deadline. There was a 90-day window in which people could still buy a phone and unlock it, but it closes on January 26. It won’t be impossible to get an unlocked phone, though: customers can still legally buy unlocked iPhones at unsubsidized prices. Currently, Verizon’s version of the iPhone 5 is sold as an unlocked phone, while AT&T will unlock an out-of-contract phone. A petition at whitehouse.gov looks to restore the legality of unlocking cell phones, but only has about 3,000 signatures as of this writing. [via Tech News Daily, The Next Web]
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1
What the heck is wrong with the US? In most of the world it’s illegal for the corporations to lock people to a carrier, in the US we make it so that even after you pay the carrier their fee and the contract price and/or ETF, you still have to ask them permission to use *your* phone or *you’re* the party breaking the law.
Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on January 25, 2013 at 11:22 AM (PST)
2
Just buy it unlocked and save us all the drama and faux victimization.
Posted by Dick Bacon on January 25, 2013 at 8:29 PM (PST)
3
@DB: It’s not a matter of drama and faux victimization, it is genuine abuse by the corporations. When did non-people gain super rights? And why are *you* so keen on shoving your head so far up their super-rectum you haven’t smelled fresh air in years?
If the “competition” isn’t serving the customer (and it’s not), the government should be ripping these assclowns a new one, not giving them even more power to over charge and under deliver.
Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on January 26, 2013 at 1:47 PM (PST)