So the White House petition site just had a petition cross the 100k signature threshold for a WH response regarding the Library of Congress decision to let the DMCA exemption for owners of cell phones to legally unlock them expire. Why is this important?
Currently many carriers subsidize the cost of the hardware when you buy it. IE that super duper smart phone does not really cost nothing, 99$ or even $199. The reality is that most cutting edge phones retail at $600-800. That is a LOT of technology packed in a very small device. So based on this the phone companies think they can control what you do with the device. They want it to be illegal to modify the device so that you can load different software or *gasp* use it on someone else's network. You might do things for free they want to charge you for, or pay less for service in certain situations than if you were forced to use their option.
Now I fully grant they have the right to enforce a contract so far as payment of their service goes. And that includes the built in hardware subsidizing that goes on. Trust me you pay ever penny of the value of those hot new smart phones by the time that two year contract is up... and THEN some. But so long as you pay your monthly contract then they should have no say in whether or not you choose to pay for another service in addition to theirs... or run a different version of software on your device. Why would you want to pay for additional service when you already have a contract? Because a lot of cellular services costs are out right extortion if you ask me. To me one of the best examples the kinds of extortion imposed by carriers championing locked cell phones are international calling rates for anyone traveling abroad. You can easily pay service charges for a few minutes of talking ( or a Mb or 20 of e-mail downloads) in a foreign country far exceeding what you would for a month of service at home... or paying for a month of service in local economy rates by just buying a pre-paid sim from a cell provider in that country. Very easy to do in most European countries if you have a GSM based phone... but not if the phone is carrier locked. Txt messaging rates are a similar racket. Many providers block alternative texting services from being used on their devices to force you to use their texting services at highway robbery costs. You did know that text messaging works by sending messages across network traffic used to keep your cell phone in contact with the cell towers right??? This means the traffic occurs constantly whether you send a text or not... and they charge typically $.25 per instance when you actually send a msg in one. Go google the equivalent data rate charges if they charged for data usage like they do texts. It is amusing.
All that aside... tinkering with electronics you buy should not be illegal. And if this clause expires anyone jailbreaking an iPhone, or rooting an Android phone becomes a criminal. This idea of carriers controlling what you do with the hardware once you purchase it from them (and you make your payments on time) is silly and it needs to be stopped. The DMCA is mostly a pile of steaming bull crap and the rest is simply unmentionable in polite company. Fighting for keeping cell phone unlocking protected from its insanity is the least the current WH admin could do for us after that piece of crap legislation passed back in the Bush admin.
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