Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

It is now a felony for Americans to unlock their smartphones

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    It is now a felony for Americans to unlock their smartphones

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...tphone/272552/

    Unfortunately, this appears not to be a joke. The Librarian of Congress is now creating law by decree.

    ADVISORY

    BY DECREE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS

    IT SHALL HENCEFORCE BE ORDERED THAT AMERICANS SHALL NOT UNLOCK THEIR OWN SMARTPHONES.

    PENALTY: In some situations, first time offenders may be fined up to $500,000, imprisoned for five years, or both. For repeat offenders, the maximum penalty increases to a fine of $1,000,000, imprisonment for up to ten years, or both.

    That’s right, starting [last Saturday] it is illegal to unlock new phones to make them available on other carriers.

    Specifically this refers to Section 1204 of Public Law 105-304, which provides that “any person who violates section 1201 or 1201 willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain. . .[shall be subject to the listed penalties].” However, given copyright laws broad interpretation by the courts, it could be argued that merely unlocking your own smartphone takes a device of one value and converts it into a device of double that value (the resale market for unlocked phones is significantly higher) and therefore unlocking is inherently providing a commercial advantage or a private financial gain—even if the gain hasn't been realized. In other words, unlocking doubles or triples the resale value of your own device and replaces the need to procure the unlocked device from the carrier at steep costs, which may be by definition a private financial gain. Alternatively, one can argue that a customer buying a cheaper version of a product, the locked version vs. the unlocked version, and then unlocking it themselves in violation of the DMCA, is denying the provider of revenue which also qualifies. There are several cases that have established similar precedents where stealing coaxial cable for personal use has been held to be for “purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain.” (See Cablevision Sys. New York City Corp. v. Lokshin, 980 F. Supp. 107, 109 (E.D.N.Y. 1997)); (Cablevision Sys. Dev. Co. v. Cherrywood Pizza, 133 Misc. 2d 879, 881, 508 N.Y.S.2d 382, 383 (Sup. Ct. 1986)).
    I will now proceed to unlock every fscking phone in my house. Come and get me, James Hadley Billington, you miserable little prick.

    #2
    Typical. A Government of Business, by Business and for Business: So they can give us the business! AboutGodDamn time the Government started protecting the rights of consumers and let the businesses fend for themselves.

    I knew when the Supreme Court decided corporations were people we were in for trouble. Here's an odd note in comparison: Bolivia granted equal right to nature last year, while we granted equal rights to Super-Pacs. Anyone else packing a bag?

    Please Read Me

    Comment


      #3
      I wonder if its also illegal to change the OS on your phone. The claim is that unlocking the phone opens it up to other providers thus denying the original provider revenue. Changing the OS would essentially be the same thing would it not? So then Ubuntu mobile OS is illegal to use? Ridiculous. Corporations have WAY too much control over the American people.

      Originally posted by oshunluvr View Post
      Anyone else packing a bag?
      Done and done. The corporate take over of the American government has been slowly happening over the last 30 years or so. I got out 10 years ago and have no intention at all of going back.
      Last edited by whatthefunk; Jan 28, 2013, 06:28 PM.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by SteveRiley View Post
        http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...tphone/272552/

        Unfortunately, this appears not to be a joke. The Librarian of Congress is now creating law by decree.

        I will now proceed to unlock every fscking phone in my house. Come and get me, James Hadley Billington, you miserable little prick.
        Unless you bought those phones on or after Saturday 26th January, 2013, you won't be committing a crime, thanks to the grandfather clause.

        The article over at Ars Technica is a bit less histrionic than The Atlantic's...

        http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...l-on-saturday/

        The new ruling comes with a grandfather clause. It will continue to be legal to unlock phones purchased before Saturday, January 26. But if you unlock a phone purchased after that date you could be liable under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
        sigpic
        "Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."
        -- Douglas Adams

        Comment


          #5
          You gota love the free market...:mad: not...

          Kinda makes me glad I don't live in the US, nor own a carrier locked phone.

          But how does this deny the carrier revenue? To get a cheap/free phone don't you have to sign up to a contract for a minimum length of time? Is that not how they make their money back? How does unlocking your phone get you out of this contract? Personally I think the carriers should be fined for locking down their phones and filling them full of crap ware.

          Comment


            #6
            Yes James, clearly the US Congress doesn't give one crap about us citizens. This is one area where the EU is way ahead of us and probably always will be.

            Please Read Me

            Comment


              #7
              I wonder just how they plan to enforce this rule.
              Codswallop
              kubuntu 20.10

              Comment


                #8
                This is some scary sh*t. Not only that it's the big biz that makes the rules, but that there's a clerk that pass the law. (Did I misunderstand something here?) Is this practice common in USA? I hear the bells ringing from Italy 1930's

                Originally posted by james147 View Post
                You gota love the free market...:mad: not...

                Kinda makes me glad I don't live in the US, nor own a carrier locked phone.

                But how does this deny the carrier revenue? To get a cheap/free phone don't you have to sign up to a contract for a minimum length of time? Is that not how they make their money back? How does unlocking your phone get you out of this contract? Personally I think the carriers should be fined for locking down their phones and filling them full of crap ware.
                Yea, one would think they ought to criminalize the lock-ins in the first place, and some people say that Richard Stallman is a 'crazy freak' for advocating software freedom. As far as I know my HTC ain't locked but, yes I am 'locked' to a contract over 24 months, but by that there's no one else to blame but me, as it should be. I don't think that it's that common here in Sweden with service-carrier locks, or at least I have avoided them.

                Originally posted by kernelbasher View Post
                I wonder just how they plan to enforce this rule.
                Codswallop
                I don't see any way to enforce it but I would assume that all those phone service shops will quit their unlock service (publicly). Which could lead to that people get software to unlock their phone on the net, that may cause a flood of malware on smartphones.

                b.r

                Jonas
                ASUS M4A87TD | AMD Ph II x6 | 12 GB ram | MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti (448 Cuda cores)
                Kubuntu 12.04 KDE 4.9.x (x86_64) - Debian "Squeeze" KDE 4.(5x) (x86_64)
                Acer TimelineX 4820 TG | intel i3 | 4 GB ram| ATI Radeon HD 5600
                Kubuntu 12.10 KDE 4.10 (x86_64) - OpenSUSE 12.3 KDE 4.10 (x86_64)
                - Officially free from windoze since 11 dec 2009
                >>>>>>>>>>>> Support KFN <<<<<<<<<<<<<

                Comment


                  #9
                  The lot of them can all piss off. It's my phone... I bought it... I own it... and I'll use it as I see fit.

                  This is almost as bad as satellite providers making you buy a receiver box, then telling you that you have to return it when your subscription is over. I'll be happy sell it back to 'em at a profit. :evil:

                  cheers
                  Bill
                  sigpic
                  A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. --Albert Einstein

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by bweinel View Post
                    The lot of them can all piss off. It's my phone... I bought it... I own it... and I'll use it as I see fit.
                    But you didn't buy it, you simply rented it from them... or at least that what they want.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      You rented it from them until it breaks... then its 'YOUR' box!

                      cheers
                      Bill
                      sigpic
                      A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. --Albert Einstein

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X