Unlocking your mobile phone will become a crime on Saturday

[ssandersjr]

I wonder how long this will last.


Unlocking your mobile phone will become a crime starting Saturday
By Shawn Knight (http://www.techspot.com/community/staff/shawn-knight.268030/)
On January 25, 2013, 7:30 AM EST



If you’ve been on the fence about whether or not to unlock your smartphone, you might want to hurry up and make a decision one way or another. That’s because starting January 26 (this Saturday), the process will become illegal (http://mashable.com/2013/01/23/unlocking-cellphones-illegal/) in the US thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The law officially went into effect in October 2012 but the Librarian of Congress provided a 90 day grace period for anyone with an unlocked device to do the deed.
It goes without saying that the restriction hasn’t earned the approval of everyone – most notably, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).The advocacy group has questioned whether or not the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has the right to determine who can and cannot unlock a phone (http://www.techspot.com/news/51439-unlocking-your-mobile-phone-will-become-a-crime-starting-saturday.html#).
Those with certain handsets like Verizon’s iPhone 5 aren’t affected as it comes unlocked out of the box. AT&T, meanwhile, will unlock a phone once it is out of contract. Alternately, users can simply purchase an unlocked phone without a carrier subsidy although expect to pay a pretty penny for the opportunity. Unlocked iPhones start at $649 but you can get something cheaper like the Nexus 4 from Google for around $300.

At the end of the day, this really isn’t expected to have a significant impact on most users. At most, it will likely become a thorn in the side of some wireless carriers like T-Mobile (http://www.techspot.com/news/50111-t-mobile-bring-your-unlocked-iphone-to-our-network-save-big.html) that have promoted bringing unlocked handsets to their network in order to save on monthly billing.

SOURCE http://www.techspot.com/news/51439-unlocking-your-mobile-phone-will-become-a-crime-starting-saturday.html

[iamthesgt]

That's freaking retarded! And I don't think it will stop a lot of people and it's just ripe for being struck down.

[SMG29]

People will still jail break their phones. They may crack down on the people making the software in the US but they won't be able to do anything about the people in other countries and they'll be the ones putting it on the Internet. It'll be just like downloading torrents.


Sent from my 1990's Zack Morris phone

[Rickety Rob]

That's freaking retarded

[ssandersjr]

http://www.slashgear.com/eff-clarifies-laws-behind-unlocking-and-jailbreaking-phones-29267197/


Last Saturday, January 26, marked the first day that it became illegal to unlock your smartphone without permission from the carriers. Of course, many users got upset over the news and for good reason, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation has clarified some details about the new laws regarding unlocking and jailbreaking your phone.

The EFF wanted to point out that the entire situation has both positives and negatives. First, it’s still completely legal to jailbreak and root your phone (but not tablets, mind you), and that law will stand through at least 2015. However, unlocking your phone yourself is illegal as everyone says it is, but the EFF note that carriers “probably aren’t going to start suing customers en masse, RIAA-style.”


The EFF says that carriers will be more likely to sue businesses that unlock and resell phones, rather than the individuals, and the charges are stiff: up to $2,500 per unlocked phone in a civil suit, and $500,000 or five years in prison in a criminal case when the unlocking is for “commercial advantage.”


Even for phones that are no longer under contract, it’s still illegal to unlock them, proving ever more that we’re really not free to do as we want with devices that we own. This law will stay put until late 2014, when the next round of creating and defending exemptions will start back up. It’s possible that we could see lawsuits form against the DMCA, but that’s something we’ll have to wait and see on.

SOURCE http://www.slashgear.com/eff-clarifies-laws-behind-unlocking-and-jailbreaking-phones-29267197/

[Rickety Rob]

What's so stupid is that I bought the phone. Which means its mine. They sold it to me at the price I bought it from them. Whatever I do to the phone is MY doing, not there's. Like buying a car. I buy it, I do whatever I want to it. As long as it's within the the limits the state see's fit. By unlocking my phone, I'm not killing the environment, killing other people, making a nuclear bomb or destroying anything. This shit is gay

[iamthesgt]

What's so stupid is that I bought the phone. Which means its mine. They sold it to me at the price I bought it from them. Whatever I do to the phone is MY doing, not there's. Like buying a car. I buy it, I do whatever I want to it. As long as it's within the the limits the state see's fit. By unlocking my phone, I'm not killing the environment, killing other people, making a nuclear bomb or destroying anything. This shit is gay

Wait...so it's not legal to root tablets???

[ssandersjr]

Wait...so it's not legal to root tablets???

Yeah, which is crazy.


According to information just starting to filter onto the web, the US government has amended their 2010 exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and as of now, rooting an Android Tablet (or jailbreaking an iPad) is illegal in the States (http://readwrite.com/2012/10/28/yup-jailbreaking-your-ipad-is-illegal).This mind blowingly stupid decision means that when an American buys themselves a new Nexus 10 (for example) and then, you know, acts like they own the tablet they just bought, they can be fined or even imprisoned for doing so. For real. The reason given being that if you root a tablet, you could watch pirated movies on it (please: nobody tell them you can watch avi or mpg etc files just fine on a no-rooted Android, for goodness sakes or they’ll probably make it illegal to use Android!).
It seems that although sanity prevailed when this was last looked at by lawmakers in the states in 2010, since then, lobbyists (i.e. RIAA) have managed to have the latest revision exclude tablets. So while it’s perfectly legal to root your phone, rooting your tablet could land you in hot water.
I would breath a sigh of relief that I don’t live in America but I caution our Australian audience to remember that our government tends to follow whatever lead American congress sends our way, in relation to copyright.

SOURCE http://www.androidanalyse.com/us-makes-it-illegal-to-root-your-phone/

Additional material at http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57540756-93/feds-uphold-jailbreaking-laws-on-dvds-game-consoles-tablets/

Older material


While smartphone jailbreaking remains legal, new rules published by the U.S. Copyright Office dictate that cracking DVDs, gaming consoles, and tablets is against the law.
The U.S. Copyright Office published its new set of rules on whether people can jailbreak smartphones, tablets, and gaming consoles today; it also outlined the guidelines on DVD copying.Overwhelmingly, its conclusions were that besides smartphones, all of the above remain illegal.
Every three years the Copyright Office takes requests from digital rights proponents and opponents to re-examine the laws under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that dictate whether people can unlock or jailbreak their varied devices. Today, in a lengthy document (PDF (https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2012-26308.pdf)), the government listed all of the changes it made.
The key developments are that people cannot copy DVDs for personal use, jailbreak gaming consoles for customization, or jailbreak tablets (http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/). The central reason why regulators said they made this decision is to avoid piracy and copyright infringement.
Within the DVD category, however, some exemptions apply. While it is illegal to crack DVDs for watching on different devices and platforms, it is legal for people to copy DVDs for use in documentary films. The regulators wrote that DVD copying is permissible in order "to make use of short portions of the motion pictures for the purpose of criticism or comment."
Smartphone jailbreaking was ruled to be lawful (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20012109-38.html) under the last examination of the DMCA (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20011661-38.html) in 2010. Today, the feds extended that exemption. Users are allowed to install unapproved applications or switch carriers on their smartphones.
There is a catch, however. While smartphone jailbreaking remains legal, the unlocking exemption for switching carriers only lasts until January. According to Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/10/jailbreaking-now-legal-under-dmca-for-smartphones-but-not-tablets/), the government decided that so many unlocked mobile devices have flooded the market in the past three years that any device purchased in January 2013 and on can only be unlocked with the permission of the network carrier.The digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation made several of the requests to the Copyright Office to allow gaming console, tablet, and smartphone jailbreaking. Despite many of the government's conclusions to the contrary, EFF remains optimistic.
"We are very pleased that the existing exemptions for jailbreaking and vidding were renewed and, in the case of vidding, significantly extended. That is an important victory for tinkerers and creators," EFF's intellectual property director Corynne McSherry told CNET. "It's unfortunate that the Copyright Office didn't take the logical next step and extend the jailbreaking exemption to tablets and consoles, but we are confident it will do so in the next round."
The batch of exemptions laid out by the Copyright Office today are scheduled to begin on October 28 and will remain in effect for the next three years.

[iamthesgt]

That is sooooo dumb

[ssandersjr]

That is sooooo dumb

Yes it is. I just edited my previous post, so you may want to look at the additional material I added.

[ssandersjr]

I'll just provide the link, as there is to much to quote here. DMCA Rulemaking doesn't make a lot of sense on how they come to their decisions

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/2012-dmca-rulemaking-what-we-got-what-we-didnt-and-how-to-improve

Lots of good info can be found at https://www.eff.org/

[iamthesgt]

Wow. That's just stupid.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[JTFRYE]

Another retarded law that I'm having to defend. Honestly I think our lawmakers are smoking something to come out with shy like this.

[Timmy_2_Tones]

This is just the tip if the iceberg ladies. They are not done yet I can promise that. Watch, next the government is going to start claiming royalties on Open Source Software.... You know, to battle piracy and shit.


Sent from my iHipster

[ssandersjr]

This is just the tip if the iceberg ladies. They are not done yet I can promise that. Watch, next the government is going to start claiming royalties on Open Source Software.... You know, to battle piracy and shit.


Sent from my iHipster

Agreed, it is just beginning.

Sent from my AT100 using Tapatalk HD

[iamthesgt]

Yep. They take anything in baby steps until they've got it all.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[CrzyChinook]

i got one word for this..can you say "Un-Enforceable"......

[HAVOK]

i got one word for this..can you say "Un-Enforceable"......

T-Mobile can......

[iamthesgt]

i got one word for this..can you say "Un-Enforceable"......

It is definitely enforceable. Rooting not so much, but unlocking is.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[Twizted875]

When I had a droid I used to do all that shit.... but rooting and patching in modded firmware loses it's coolness when you've had a few close calls with locking your phone... Nowaday I just keep it chill lol

[iamthesgt]

When I had a droid I used to do all that shit.... but rooting and patching in modded firmware loses it's coolness when you've had a few close calls with locking your phone... Nowaday I just keep it chill lol

I only use stable builds, like Cyanogen(Mod) releases.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2