The Library of Congress, based on recommendations by the Register of Copyrights (Wikipedia), dictates what constitutes a legitimate exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). In a rule titled "Exception to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies", published on October 26, 2012, the Library of Congress determined that actions, such as unlocking a phone, do not constitute an exception. As such, the firmware contained on the phone is considered copyrighted work and, therefore, is protected. The details of the recommendation can be found in section "III. The Designated Classes", sub-section "C. Wireless Telephone Handsets--Interoperability With Alternative Networks".
Part of the reasoning is that you can readily purchase unlocked phones, albeit at a much higher cost. But, for subsidized phones, the carrier can enforce rules regarding what you can do.
The new rules will affect phones purchased on/after January 26, 2013.
In 2010, it was believed that the owner of the phone, not the carrier, actually owned the copy of the software running on the phones. Copyright court cases since 2010 have provided precedent that argues that a software user is a licensee of the software, rather than an owner of a copy. This allows the copyright owner to restrict the user's use of the software, including alterations to the software. That extends to the firmware that most phones operate under.
I strongly suggest that you contact your cell phone carrier or consult their support web site for how they will apply the ruling. I suspect that, for non-iPhone phones, there will be a policy in place which bars the owner from unlocking their new phone for a certain period of time, such as the first 90-days of a new contract.
There is a petition to ask the Whitehouse to weigh in on the issue: "We Petition The Obama Administration To: Make Unlocking Cell Phones Legal". It still needs to get 100,000 votes by February 23, 2013. I recommend that you take a few moments and add your name to the petition.CD
The updated information is.....It is now legal to get our phones unlocked from third party unlocking services in U.S. Recently, I unlocked my mobile .I had to travel outside my country and I had to unlock it very quickly. My network provider prolonged the unlock process...and luckily the amendment of unlocking phone made legal saved my time. I used the service from Superunlockcodes.com and removed the network lock very easily. They unlocked my phone within few hours....
ReplyDeleteThank you for your response. Things have certainly improved since my original post. Makes me wonder whether I should actively update my old posts or leave them along for historical purposes and post new articles that offer new insight.
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