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Hack Your Phone, Go to Jail

Posted by timothy on from the yes-that-is-what's-next dept.

thodu writes: "This bill [Mobile Telephones (Re-Programming)] in the UK aims to make it illegal for anyone to change a GSM phone's IMEI number. Though the intention in this case is seemingly for the good (to track and prevent stolen phones from being used), the line between legitimate mods and illegal hacks is increasingly becoming blurred. What next - a bill to disallow modifying your PC ?"

1 of 525 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A good thing... by FyRE666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This will do nothing to stop mugging

    Erm, I think it will have a VERY noticable effect on the blackmarket in reprogrammed phones. There are businesses that currently operate legitimately whose sole business is chaning the identity of [stolen] phones. The only reason anyone would wish to do this is to sell a stolen phone, there's no other purpose for it. Sure you might want to do this yourself, but why? It's not as though anything spectacular will happen!

    Maybe you think anyone should be able to file off vehicle identification serial numbers too, or wire up their house with all the earth wires and live wires reversed?

    --
    Code, Hardware, stuff like that.