[BBPandy]

Yep - agreed... and in the wonderful UK (well, definitely England & Wales - we don't have a completely joined up legal system...) it is also explicitly legal to rip your DVDs to enable your own viewing on another device you control (eg on my PlayBook!)

I don't believe that the draconian laws discussed in this thread will have much of a lifespan - 5-15 years max?

Remember the "millennium copyright act" That has been around since 1996 & has been used to build other laws on
Just becuase a law is stupid & draconian doesn't mean that it will be revoked....especially if it's backed by weathly lobbiests.

[itmccb]

Somehow I managed to read "unlocking your phone" as "going past the lock screen". Now that would be insanity *facepalm*

[xandermac]

Illegal or not, i'll still do it.

Btw, I thought the decision was that its illegal "for the purposes of switching carriers". That would mean its still perfectly legal to unlock for travel.


Sent from my 4s

[OniBerry]

Illegal or not, i'll still do it.

Btw, I thought the decision was that its illegal "for the purposes of switching carriers". That would mean its still perfectly legal to unlock for travel.


Sent from my 4s

That's the excuse most use when they ask their carrier to unlock the device.

Sent from the ether...

[xandermac]

I find this little jem to be funny. I'm currently reading the ruling, MetroPCS is cited numerous times as a major proponent of unlocking. Apparently only if it's mandated for other carriers though. I'll explain. A friend of mine recently bought an Android device from MetroPCS, liked the phone but not the network. The phone supports T-Mobile 1700 aws bands so I popped my SIM in to see if it would work, it was locked. He asked Metro to unlock it and was refused. Yeauh, big proponent of consumer choice right there!.

[xandermac]

Unless you pay full price the carrier owns the phone for the duration of the contract.

This is incorrect. If you read the ruling you will see that the issue of phone ownership is never questioned. Its "software ownerhip" that is the issue. Its the Digital millennium copyright act, not the Hardware millennium copyright act.

The hardware aspect is irrelevant, the customer owns the device hardware outright.

4. Recommendation
The record supports a finding that proponents have met their burden of
establishing that the technological measures applied to mobile handset firmware have an
adverse effect on a noninfringing use of that firmware in some cases, namely, when the
user owns the firmware on a legacy phone. However, the broad contours of proponents’
proposed exemption are not supported by the evidentiary record. Accordingly, the
Register must decline classes 6A, 6B, and 6C as proposed.

In keeping with the Register’s findings based on the limited record before her, the
Register recommends that the Librarian designate the below-described class, which is a
narrower, “lesser included class” of those that were proposed. The marketplace has
evolved such that consumers now have access to a variety of unlocked phones. But
consumers may not be able to unlock legacy phones without circumvention and carriers
are unwilling to unlock phones in many cases. The recommended class more properly
reflects the current state of the market as indicated by the evidence presented in this
proceeding. The recommended class provides a ninety-day transitional period for those who
may acquire phones shortly after the new exemption becomes effective. As explained
above, in designating an exempted class, the Register is to begin with a category of works
set forth in Section 102, but has considerable latitude to shape the recommended class to
achieve its intended purpose. The Register believes that a transition period is appropriate
to permit affected parties to familiarize themselves with the changed rule. In taking this approach,
the Register looks to precedent in copyright law allowing for similar periods of adjustment before new rules take effect.

Computer programs, in the form of firmware or
software, that enable a wireless telephone handset
originally acquired from the operator of a wireless
telecommunications network or retailer no later than
ninety days after the effective date of this exemption to
connect to a different wireless telecommunications
network, if the operator of the wireless communications
network to which the handset is locked has failed to
unlock it within a reasonable period of time following a
request by the owner of the wireless telephone handset,
and when circumvention is initiated by the owner, an
individual consumer, who is also the owner of the copy
of the computer program in such wireless telephone
handset, solely in order to connect to a different wireless
telecommunications network, and such access to the
network is authorized by the operator of the network.

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2012/S...mmendation.pdf

[reeneebob]

The contract is tied to the sim card, not the phone. The phone is owned by the customer the minute they leave the store with it. , there are a lot of accounts where the phone listed isn't the phone being actively used, unlike the old cdma days.


I've got blisters on me fingers!!! from using Tapatalk 2

[gxgs]

Lol at the amount of corruption that runs through this government... I wonder how much he/they got paid to write such stupidity of a law. Its not even something that will benefit the well being of the nation or the people, just some greedy action of 3 or 4 corporations because they just want it so. I will rip and unlock sh*t more than ever now...

Corporations literally run the government...

[Roo Zilla]

Lol at the amount of corruption that runs through this government... I wonder how much he/they got paid to write such stupidity of a law..

It's not exactly writing the law. The law's been in place for over a decade (Digital Millenium Copyright Act, DMCA). It's writing exceptions to the law.

[toboy]

The law doesn't apply to Canada.....so maybe, a workaround the US unlocking law might be using a Canadian based unlocker for your susidised blackberry 10..... For US users..... If one buys it outright. Then again, one could ask your fully purchased device to be unlocked by carrier..... If anything. Any thoughts?

All I know is the new US law don't apply to me.

[toboy]

Another way is to buy your phones in Singapore or Israel.....where selling of locked cell phones are illegal. The Singapore Govt have actually gave one of its providers a warning ......for selling locked cellphones......

The third would be Hong Kong.... Once paid in full, they will gladly unlock it for you...... Initially, devices are locked but will be unlocked after purchase

[superdirt]

Buy an unlocked phone if you don't want to be locked into a contract. Sounds fair to me.

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