wehateporn

Will this stop you unlocking your Smartphone?

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

This is now the law of the land:

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 this weekend it is illegal to unlock new phones to make them available on other carriers.

I have deep sympathy for any individual who happens to get jail time for this offense. I am sure that other offenders would not take kindly to smartphone un-lockers.

But seriously: It's embarrassing and unacceptable that we are at the mercy of prosecutorial and judicial discretion** to avoid the implementation of draconian laws that could implicate average Americans in a crime subject to up to a $500,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

If people see this and respond, well no one is really going to get those types of penalties, my response is: Why is that acceptable? While people's worst fears may be a bit unfounded, why do we accept a system where we allow such discretionary authority? If you or your child were arrested for this, would it comfort you to know that the prosecutor and judge could technically throw the book at you? Would you relax assuming that they probably wouldn't make an example out of you or your kid? When as a society did we learn to accept the federal government having such Orwellian power? And is this the same country that used jury nullification against laws that it found to be unjust as an additional check upon excessive government power? [The only silver lining is that realistically it's more likely that violators would be subject to civil liability under Section 1203 of the DMCA, instead of the fine and jail penalties, but this is still unacceptable (but anyone who accepts payments to help others unlock their phones would clearly be subject to the fine of up to $500,000 and up to five years in jail).]

NEW ABSURD CRIME

When did we decide that we wanted a law that could make unlocking your smartphone a criminal offense?

The answer is that we never really decided. Instead, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998 to outlaw technologies that bypass copyright protections. This sounds like a great idea, but in practice it has terrible, and widely acknowledged, negative consequences that affect consumers and new innovation. The DMCA leaves it up to the Librarian of Congress (LOC) to issue exemptions from the law, exceptions that were recognized to be necessary given the broad language of the statute that swept a number of ordinary acts and technologies as potential DMCA circumvention violations.

Every three years groups like the American Foundation for the Blind have to lobby Congress to protect an exception for the blind allowing for books to be read aloud. Can you imagine a more ridiculous regulation than one that requires a lobby group for the blind to come to Capitol Hill every three years to explain that the blind still can't read books on their own and therefore need this exception?

Until recently it was illegal to jailbreak your own iPhone, and after Saturday it will be illegal to unlock a new smartphone, thereby allowing it to switch carriers. This is a result of the exception to the DMCA lapsing -- not as a result of a mistake but of an intentional choice by the Librarian of Congress that this was no longer fair use and acceptable. The Electronic Frontier Foundation among other groups has detailed the many failings of the DMCA Triennial Rulemaking process which in this case led to this exception lapsing.

Conservatives should be leading the discussion on fixing this problem. Conservatives are understandably skeptical of agencies and unelected bureaucrats wielding a large amount of power to regulate, and are proponents of solutions like the REINS Act (which has over 121 co-sponsors). However, if Congress truly wants to rein in the power of unelected bureaucrats, then they must first write laws in a narrow manner and avoid the need for intervention by the Librarian of Congress to avoid draconian consequences like making iPhone jail breakers and smartphone un-lockers criminals, or taking away readable books for the blind.

If conservatives are concerned of unelected bureaucrats deciding upon regulations which could have financial consequences for businesses, then they should be more worried about unelected bureaucrats deciding upon what is or isn't a felony punishable by large fines and jail time for our citizens. And really, why should unelected bureaucrats be choosing what technological choices you can make with your smartphone? These laws serve to protect the interests of a few companies and create and maintain barriers to entry.

But there is another matter of critical importance: Laws that can place people in jail should be passed by Congress, not by the decree of the Librarian of Congress. We have no way to hold the Librarian of Congress accountable for crazy laws. There are still plenty of crazy laws passed by elected officials, but at least we can then vote them out of office.

There are numerous other problems with the DMCA. As I explained in an essay for Cato Unbound:

"The DMCA bars developing, selling, providing, or even linking to technologies that play legal DVDs purchased in a different region, or to convert a DVD you own to a playable file on your computer. Because no licensed DVD playing software is currently available for the Linux operating system, if a Linux user wishes to play a DVD that they have legally bought, they cannot legally play it on their own computer.

In order to regulate this anti-circumvention market, the DCMA authorizes injunctions that seem to fly in the face of First Amendment jurisprudence on prior restraint. The DMCA also makes companies liable for copyright infringement if it doesn't remove content upon notification that someone believes the content infringes their copyright - this creates a very strong business interest in immediately taking down anything that anyone claims is infringing to not be liable. Christina Mulligan's essay for Copyright Unbalanced details how in mid-July 2012 a Mitt Romney campaign ad hosted on Youtube was forcibly removed from the site, and in 2008 Youtube blocked several John McCain ads for more than 10 days. As Mulligan details, the ads were legitimate under "fair use." Allowing individual people to veto political speech that they do not like stifles free expression and political dialogue and even if a rare occurrence under the DMCA should not be taken likely. There are also other examples of abuse, Mulligan details that one group had all Justin Bieber songs removed from Youtube as a prank."

And if you thought this was bad, provisions of the DMCA relating to anti-circumvention are part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Treaty - and the United States is the party asking for it as part of the negotiations. Placing it in the treaty will enact our dysfunctional system on an international level in countries that don't want it, and it will "re-codify" the DMCA in an international treaty making it significantly more difficult to revise as necessary. Copyright laws are domestic laws and they need to be flexible enough to adjust accordingly to not inhibit new innovation.

I for one am pro-choice with regard to my smartphone, ask your elected representative if they are as well.

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JFK

is this for real ?

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wehateporn

Unfortunately so

Unauthorized unlocking of mobile phones set to be illegal in U.S.
http://business.financialpost.com/20...llegal-in-u-s/

Unlocking cellphones becomes illegal Saturday
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/te...rday-1C8086503

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wehateporn

Some websites out there have been making a lot of money from this, this is going to hurt them! There'll still be a big market, but it's going to take a significant hit

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CurrentlySober

Land of the free...

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wehateporn

You couldn't afford to poo in the USA

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BIGTYMER

This is what happens when corporations run congress.

Kasumi

Thanks, Obama

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What we NEED is somebody in Congress who actually lives in the 'real world' a stay-at-home mom, out of work father, single parent child, someone that has actually had to live, fight and survive for everything they own, someone who has maybe lived on food skamps, government handouts or disability that actually needed it, not someone who abused the system.

You know, the guy or girl you see everyday walking past you in the skreet, with no aspirations to be a life-long politician, somebody who will tell it like it is and not be worried what their 'party' thinks of them because ultimately, they actually do want to fix shit.

Only then will things in the country get better because we'll actually have someone in a position of 'power' that knows what it is like to be a person living in the United States without having been born with a silver spoon stuck up their ass constantly being told their shit doesn't stink.

Unfortunately, nobody would actually vote for such a person because the people with all the control will outspend them on political campaigning, things are only going to get worse for us all...

SilentKnight

Wow - sucks to have a smartphone and live south of the border.

Go Canada.

Dirty Dane

Ten years in prison. Fair enough. It's a serious crime.

SmutHammer

Why should you be able to unlock it if it is not what the company wants done with their product?

Edit: I'm not saying I agree with how strict the penalties are.

shake

I think it's a stupid law. If cell providers want to offer discounted or free handsets, that's what contracts are for. If anything governments should be passing laws making it illegal to lock a phone to a provider.

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pornmasta

some lobbies are more powerful than the others...

Killswitch

Bingo... I'm not saying I agree with the law either, actually it's bullshit.. But still it's their product, it's like the current problem in the industry.. Stolen content being used to promote another company/whatever...

You bitch because PornHub.com used your content to promote another site, but then bitch when another company doesn't want their products used with competitors?

Anyone see the problem with this? Double standards much?

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GonZo

Difference is the phone has been paid for while the stuff your jacking off to for free on Pornhub has been stolen.

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nico-t

exactly!
This can't be real.
How the hell can they do this? You buy the fucking thing, it's yours. You can shove it up your ass if you want to.
I cant believe this, isn't this way too obvious that the corporate $ makes the laws? This is the most obvious trigger for the people to wake up and do something.

mineistaken

Strange, because in, for example, (some?) EU countries it is illegal for operators to lock their phones...

woj

you buy a $500 script for $250... (the other $250 was subsidized by the hosting company, with the intention that the script will be installed and used on that host...)

should you have the right to "unlock" / hack the script to be able to move it to a different host?

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pornmasta

Well, they need first to monitor everything that you do with their products:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/17295...4_lawsuit.html
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZA4aK33ylc4
facebook.com

pornmasta

10 years of jail for $250.

Gary_TLX

The funniest thing is that there are people who actually agree with this. 10 years in prison for modifying something you bought, hence you own. Seems like a good idea....

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SmutHammer

most decent phones are around $600. to $800.

mineistaken

Thats what contracts are for. In this case yo and hosting company do a contract saying that you should stay X months with them, otherwise you pay the difference.
Thats usually how it works in cell phone business as well. You get subsidized phone but for that you must stay 24 months or whatever.

mineistaken

this is why US and A is a prison country, they have ridiculously big sentences for minor things.

woj

obviously that's excessive, but I don't think anyone would get 10 years for unlocking their own phone... 10 years is for someone running some "business" reprogramming 1000s of phones or something, possibly costing the wireless company millions...

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pornmasta

how much did you steal to face 10 years of jail in your country (including the obsolescence of the phone) ?

SilentKnight

Under our current plan, my phone is paid off entirely by the end of the contract. Therefore I should be able to unlock it at that point if/when I switch to another provider.

pornmasta

well yes, but unlocking a smartphone is something for poor people.
I think that they need new customers, that's why there is this law

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/1...ass-rectangle/

seXXXhub

u gotta love the US .... NOT !!!

SomeCreep

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crockett

No it's not their product.. the iPhone is not made by AT&T or Verizon or any other carrier. Neither is any other cell phone on the market.

This is the same as saying "Hey" you can't use a Dell computer on any other internet service other than Comcast. If you try to buy a Dell and use it on Chatter you are going to jail..

The reason Cell Phone "service" providers have been able to get away with this is because they have created a racket with cell phone manufacturers that ties the cell phone to their carrier. This above anything should be illegal.

You can't go to Apple's store and buy an iPhone with out also selecting a service provider that limits you to only 3 carriers and you are "locked" into their carrier with that phone.

That is bull shit and should be illegal.

Barry-xlovecam

woj

yea, it make sense, it's anti-competitive, probably not a good idea, not something I support, but if the phone is subsidized by the wireless company it becomes a bit of a gray area...

imagine you signup for a phone service, you get the phone for free and you are supposed to stay with the company for 2 years... you are assuming that you own the phone after 2 years, but do you really? it's in your possession, but you didn't pay for it, so how can you own it? perhaps it was just leased to you for 2 years?

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SilentKnight

That's part of the problem - those who assume they own the phone after the contract ends...when in fact it's subsidized and still owned by the carrier.

That's one thing we specifically asked (and signed) about when we renewed our contract. We definitely own the phone(s) at the end of the contract. But we'll likely just renew with the same carrier and upgrade the phones to whatever is best and newest a year from now.

The Ghost

Buy a factory unlocked phone (iPhone or whatever) from another country. Problem solved.


No contract. There are carriers that you can get monthly SIMS or pay as you go.



The again you might have to pay $1000 for your phone (for the newest/latest phone). Something many Americans would be unwilling to do.

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BIGTYMER

Add a bigger HD to my DVR
Fix diode on my LCD TV
Supercharge my car
Switch to Unbuntu from Win7
Replace broken glass on my iPhone
Install new video card on my PC
Etc.

But unlocking the phone you paid for: Illegal

SilentKnight

Wait till they find out we've been tearing the tags off our mattresses...FOR YEARS!

BIGTYMER

GonZo

Not unless you pay the other $20 or subside before moving.
And I have been quite pleased with MojoHost for many years.

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DBS.US

It was like that when I bought it

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Coup

Putting all phone spergs in prison is fine by me

epitome

I just got done a 20 year stint for cutting tags off my mattress.

halfpint

There is no difference from sombody paying for a membership then uploading to a torrent site is there ?

The companys dont want to to unlock the phones then dont do it ...simple

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