unlock your phone is illegal now

[µT6]

"For all you polyamorous types out there who don't like the long-term monogamy demanded by most American wireless carriers when it comes to smartphones, I have bad news.

Starting this Saturday, it becomes illegal in this great land to unlock a new smartphone without the permission of the carrier that locked it in the first place.

This all goes back to a final rule issued in late October by the Librarian of Congress (PDF) -- the Library of Congress handles the rulemaking for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which is the specific law we're talking about here."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57565730-1/unauthorized-unlocking-of-smartphones-becomes-illegal-saturday/

so, the first thing to ask when buying a new phone is "is it unlocked to use on all carriers?"

if the answer is no and they also say that they will not unlock it, then i would not buy it

[Just17]

I fail to see why anyone would expect their carrier to facilitate unlocking of a phone they have subsidised, until the contract with which the phone was supplied expires.

On the other hand I do not see how the carrier is in need of this protection, as they get paid for the phone in any case .....  over the length of the contract or by an early termination fee.

Any info on what this is designed to discourage?

[AndrzejL]

I fail to see why anyone would expect their carrier to facilitate unlocking of a phone they have subsidised, until the contract with which the phone was supplied expires.

On the other hand I do not see how the carrier is in need of this protection, as they get paid for the phone in any case .....  over the length of the contract or by an early termination fee.

Any info on what this is designed to discourage?

Well in Ireland networks / carriers are very cool about it. I am with Vodafone network and they don't care if I unlock the phone. They will do it for me without a problem too if I am eligible.

For example: I had Nokia 6610i in the past and was using it for 5 or 6 months and asked them about unlocking it - they said no problem You have topped up by €120 in the last 6 months we will order the unlocking code from Nokia and we will text You when we have it...

And that's cool but someone would say... hmmm €120 is a lot of money - sure it is but if I top up by €20 a month I get unlimited free texts and calls to every single Vodafone mobile 24/7 for the next 30 days AND here is the nice part - sometime after I have bought two Nokias 5200 (for myself and my fiance) as a upgrade (no sim card just the phone) - I paid €100 for each and I got €80 free call / text credit - €10 for purchasing (applied right after my simcard was placed in the phone), €10 for registering the phone with my vodafone.ie account and then €10 each month for six months BUT right after I have purchased them we had to travel to Poland and we wanted to use Polish sim cards in them. So I rang Vodafone and they have unlocked the phones for us... because my sim card was in the new phone they checked and said - yes you are a valuable customer, you have the same number for x years and you have been topping up regularly - there You go - here are your unlocking codes... Voila... Same thing happened when I purchased my Nokia N73...

That's how You treat the customers and make sure they don't go with another carrier...

I am not sure how other phones are getting unlocked - I know that Nokia will work with the unlocking codes, other phones need to be re-flashed with new software I guess.

I think recently they changed their policy to "You can unlock 5 phones per 1 number / simcard" but I am sure it's just to make life tougher for all those folks that are purchasing upgrade phones, unlocking them, registering, selling on while they still receive free credit using their old phone... I am betting that customers like myself could still ring them up and they would unlock the phone for me.

Regards.

Andrzej

[muungwana]

I fail to see why anyone would expect their carrier to facilitate unlocking of a phone they have subsidised, until the contract with which the phone was supplied expires.

On the other hand I do not see how the carrier is in need of this protection, as they get paid for the phone in any case .....  over the length of the contract or by an early termination fee.

Any info on what this is designed to discourage?

Nobody calls a house they are renting "my house" with full expectations of ownership.The same applies here,the phone companies still own the phone as the use of the phone is till under the terms of the contract a user agree to when they signed up for a plan and get the phone as part of the plan.

It is the same thing with software.Microsoft sells licenses,they still retain ownership of the software and a user simply buys a permission to use the software.It is,in effect, a rent payed once instead of monthly or yearly and hence its easy to forget it is actually "renting" and not "buying".

Breaking a contract is a civil issue,its is between two private parties who may use the legal system at their expense to resolve the issue.The government may come into play to enforce a ruling made by the legal system.

Making breaking a contract a criminal issue basically makes the government a party in the matter in place of the phone company.Its a good move on the phone companies since they now wont have to use their own money to enforce contracts the go in with users,the government will do the enforcing of those contracts.

The phone companies seem to have taken a page from RIAA and MPAA.Make a civil issue a criminal issue and let the government be responsible for enforcement.

[joechimp]

I hate all this crap.

[tschommer]

I hate all this crap.

Me too. But a petition is in place and it's gaining support:

[AndrzejL]

I hate all this crap.

That's a big +1... and cloud computing is just another way of robbing us of ownership... I pay for the phone - I own it... I pay for the software / movie - I own it. There can be some rules like "You cannot display the movie in public or for commercial purposes" I get that or even - You can only install this software on one machine because You have purchased license for one machine... but don't try to tell me what I can and cannot do with my phone / other hardware... If I want to I can go to the roof of my house and (assuming I am not gonna kill / hurt anyone physically) I can throw it from there till it breaks apart. Soon they will try telling me that I cannot take of the labels from my jeans or that I cannot accidentally spill coffee on my t-shirt coz it is illegal... It's a bull... but I guess we are living in such times... I am gonna stick to using service from "normal" companies and I will leave the ones that "own everything" for those that like to be treated in such way...

Regards.

Andrzej

[Crow]

AndrzejL , Jobs tried to tell everybody how to handle an iPhone   

Is simple from my point of view, if the contract says "you can't unlock the phone for a year", you signed and then unlock the phone you can be sued. You don't like it? pay the full price and get it unlocked.

I don't understand, why people is implicating the government in all this?  it's a private, free agreement. If contract is broken then the offended part has to sue, not the government.

[AndrzejL]

AndrzejL , Jobs tried to tell everybody how to handle an iPhone   

True . I love the signature btw .

Cheers.

Andrzej

[µT6]

"If contract is broken then the offended part has to sue, not the government."

they are saying that the contract forces the "owner" of the phone to follow the rules, if they don't do it then there will be legal consequences

what was done in the past when this was done by the user?

most user made solutions involves hacks and weird firmwares, illegal tools and similar stuff, you end having a weird phone working funny or not working at all so use the carrier to unlock the phone has a sense, it is a simple process asking for the imei and using a couple of numbers, very simple to follow, the problem is when the company refuses to do it for free or refuses to do it unless you pay the entire phone

in some countries the law is forcing the companies to sell the phones unlocked, under contract or not

if they sell the phones locked, they have to unlock them free, each country decides what to do with their companies 

[YouCanToo]

I hate all this crap.

That's a big +1... and cloud computing is just another way of robbing us of ownership... I pay for the phone - I own it... I pay for the software / movie - I own it. There can be some rules like "You cannot display the movie in public or for commercial purposes" I get that or even - You can only install this software on one machine because You have purchased license for one machine... but don't try to tell me what I can and cannot do with my phone / other hardware... If I want to I can go to the roof of my house and (assuming I am not gonna kill / hurt anyone physically) I can throw it from there till it breaks apart. Soon they will try telling me that I cannot take of the labels from my jeans or that I cannot accidentally spill coffee on my t-shirt coz it is illegal... It's a bull... but I guess we are living in such times... I am gonna stick to using service from "normal" companies and I will leave the ones that "own everything" for those that like to be treated in such way...

Regards.

Andrzej

A big +1

[bicol_willem]

I hate all this crap.

+1 !  The GREED behind it makes me sick. 

[thorper]

I'm in the UK and bought a prepaid smartphone from a dealer, there are several high street phone shops in the UK that are not tied to a specific network, carphonewarehouse, phones4u to name a couple. These phones are bought pre unlocked so just have to pay a phone with the cheapest sim card, which is about £10 extra. Put in my own sim card after using up the sim and I am happy.

Most smartphones are triple or quad band so will work in any country without a problem.

[parnote]

I can't wait for the legal challenges to start arising over this!

To me, it's like saying you buy a car from Dealer X, but you can only put gasoline in it from Gas Station Y ... even though the gasoline from Gas Stations A, E, S and T will work well, too. But, you are prohibited by law from putting any gasoline into the car, except from Gas Station Y.

Putting it into these terms makes the "Librarian of Congress" ruling seem even more absurd than it already does on its face.

Where do we find these morons?

[thorper]

Where do we find these morons?

They are voted in by Joe Public so it's all the fault of Joe..... lol