Slashdot Mirror
Mobile Phones Locked By DMCA
wellington map writes "A mobile phone company is arguing that companies that unlock their handsets violate the DMCA. They argue that the software on the phone is a copyrighted work, and the unlocker is breaking DRM in a way that violates the statutory prohibition on circumvention. A similar claim by Lexmark, which tried to apply it to people who refilled printer cartridges, has recently been rejected by the courts." From the Wired article: "The financial motive behind this claim is obvious. Companies have been using the razor blade business model to guarantee a steady stream of revenue ever since, well, the razor blade. Cell phone companies sell you a phone at a discount, and then make up the difference by requiring you to sign a multi-year contract promising to pay monthly fees for mobile phone service or to fork over a hefty termination penalty if you break the deal. But many customers, particularly those who travel internationally, want more choice."
Story lifted directly from BoingBoing. Even the quote from Wired was lifted directly from the BoingBoing story.
See the BoingBoing story here.
As for the 'razor blade' argument cited in TFA, the reason it works for razor blades is because they're cheap...too cheap for people to 'mod' their razors to be able to accept other, cheaper razor blades. This model simply doesn't apply in the world of printer cartridges and cell phones...since it's worth the expense. Lexmark increased the expense by implementing the 'handshake' between the cartridge and the printer, but circumventing that proved to be worth the expense as well. When Lexmark attempted to invoke DMCA they got slapped down, and rightly so.
The point is, if I own a product, be it cellphone, printer, or razor, it is mine. The courts ultimately ruled against Lexmark in this matter, and I expect (and hope) that they will rull against the cellphone companies as well.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
What's the problem? If you want to pay less for a locked in phone thats your buisness. If you want to have freedom to go to any network you want you have to pay a premium. I don't necessarily see a problem with the buisness model...
Is this one of those things where it must be bad because it contains the worst of the slashdot four letter words (DMCA)?
always buy unlocked phones and use them with whichever n/w you like.
Can I get a +1 DUH !
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
A mobile phone company is arguing that companies that unlock their handsets violate the DMCA
So I gues that makes thos of us who hack mobile phones terrorists or something?
I would think that if you follow this logic, Verizon crippling their handsets so that customers can't access their own copyrighted works (pictures they've taken and messages they've received) without paying $0.25 is also a terrorist. I can live with that.
Most of the times, locked phones are a fraud. Why? Nowhere it is written that you can only use them with a certain provider. You buy a phone, not a phone that will work with (put your provider name).
I dumped T-Mobile because they wouldn't unlock their phone (although they promised they would). And I bought an unlocked one. Screw them.
... in many countries already. And soon (I hope) it may be in the US. We're working with a few congressmen who asked us to help with a bill that's been drawn up.
boingboing linked to the Wired article. So of course they would have the exact same quote.
The difference between cracking software and unlocking a cell phone is that the software inside the phone has an option for unlocking. The key is having the code and entering it. If the cell companies don't like it then they should require the manufacturers to remove that functionality from their products. The fact of the matter is that no company will want to do that since the same phone can be used on many networks with the same QA'd software. Now when I sign that contract with the cell company, they say that I will keep my contract for X amount of months. If I break it, then I pay for termination fee. Whether I choose to unlock the phone prior to or after that point is not the right of the company to dictate. I didn't license the phone from them nor did I lease it. I bought a physical appliance that is in my possession. Where I go from there after fulfilling the termination free requirements of my contract is my business. If the cell companies don't like it, then they need to stop subsidizing phones at low prices, lease phones that the consumer never truely owns, or come up with a pricing model and service quality level that will keep customers. Using the law to prevent me from doing something with a piece of equipment that I own is not their right once they have sold it to me.
-----
Bored? Enjoy the Laughs. (best forum on the 'net)
There are several arguments: One (as mentioned in the original article) is when you're travelling elsewhere and your phone is either prohibitively expensive to use if roaming, or you can't use your provider at all. You would want a local SIM card then. A second, and in my opinion extremely valid reason, is when the phone company fails to unlock or provide you with the means to unlock your phone after the contractual period has expired. I had to use one of those services myself on one occation because of this (my parents were stuck without a working phone in a foreign country, I managed to talk them through the unlock procedure over a borrowed phone). And I also own one phone myself that is locked to one provider, five years after they were supposed to unlock it according to local telecommunication laws. Unfortunately the internet unlock companies don't have a procedure for this brand of phone.
Which mobile phone company did this? I'ma put on my walking shoes, and spend my money with a different company.
(Article doesn't say which company, but it can only be Cingular or T-Mobile. (Large, and unlocking implies GSM))
Mobile phone companies means manufacturers. Why then, was mobile phone service providers talked about in the article? They actually lose money on the phones or make such a small amount they would prefer to just sign you up for the contract. It's the phone manufacturer that wants to be able to sell you the phone for a different service provider. I just felt I needed to say that. I really dislike disinformation...which is why I don't watch the news.
Back when there was but one Bell telephone, there arose an issue with "Other than Bell" equipment on a Bell phone line. If I understand how the story goes, it went to the supreme court and they said "people have the right to use any phone they like and should not be locked into buying from a monopolistic vendor."
These locked phones are essentially the same thing where they are using this practice as a means to keep people from migrating from one service to another. It also serves to prevent any resale value for any equipment that someone may own which is also bad for the consumer.
This situation, if tested is court, will be an easy win for the consumer. I have no doubt on that.
People went: "Like OMG":
"Bullock carts sell cheap, it's always those flimsy bullock cart wheels that cost a fortune."
"Horses come cheap, it's the price of horsewhips that the horse companies are after."
"Rocks are a dime a dozen, it's the exorbitantly priced firewood that the wood companies fleece you with."
Now it's all like OMG "they're using teh razor blade model". Times are a changing.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
I use a Motorola phone I got through Cingular. They sell the Motorola "World Phones" all unlocked.
Sure, the phone company subsidizes your phone hardware by locking you into a certain term length of contract... So, if you unlock your phone and use it with another provider, YOU'RE STILL STUCK WITH THE TERMS OF THE CONTRACT. Therefore, what's the point of worrying about locking the customer out? A contract's a contract.
The REAL reason a lot of these cell companies worry about "unlocking" is the data transfer. I never paid for a single ringtone... I connect my data cable to my phone (or use my handheld with Bluetooth) and drop MP3s of my choice on the phone. I also "hacked" it (using a combination of the Programmer Service Tools and something called SIStorGSM) to remove the crap stock ringtones and images that I never used, thus freeing up more space for my own media. Great! Now, I'm a criminal?
This DRM stuff really pisses me off... I really do try to be a law-abiding person. I pay for my software, my movies, DVDs of TV series I love, even music CDs; all of which I COULD have pirated off the 'net... but the more DRM the Intellectual Property crowd puts in, the more they say to me "You're ALL guilty of being pirates" and the more I say "Well, if you're going to consider me guilty anyway, why do I care so much for trying to 'do the right thing'"
The Digital Sorceress
I'm getting so frustrated over all these DMCA issues that I have to get up and do something physical. So, now I sing the Y.M.C.A. song and dance the dance, but using the DMCA acronym and ending it with a big pelvis thrust.
After I started doing that, I stopped posting silly comments on slashdot... oh wait..
Why are the phone companies concerned w/ the phone being locked or not. If I bought a one cent phone, and had to sign up for a two year contract to get it, then I am stuck in a two year contract. If I mod the phone, I am still stuck in a two year contract. If I jump up and down on the phone, I am still stuck in a two year contract. If I play some skeet shooting w/ the phone as the pigeon, I am still stuck in a two year contract. If I sign up for service with another provider in another country w/ the same phone, how is this hurting the first company? In other words, they are still getting the money from me according to the contract, so why do they care?
Won't hold up, same as the Lexmark case.
Further.. if it does hold up, this is just further evidence that the DMCA is very badly written.
Even if you are a very strong proponent of stricter copyrights, this is outside the intended scope of the DMCA.
The locking mechanism is there to prevent using competing SIM cards on the phone, not to protect access to a work under copyright.
[U]nlock[ing ...] handsets violate the DMCA. [...] Those who travel internationally, want more choice.
So unlock them in a country that doesn't have the DMCA. No problem.
Registering accounts later than some other chrisb since 1997
how hard it is to load a Java game into a cellphone.
Even if you buy a game downloaded directly into the phone, you only have limited memory, so if you want to archive your game to your computer in order to make room for other games, it's also a pain in the ass to do.
My previous phone came with a few games installed, but my new phone came with this one game, and after a few minutes of playing, the game stopped and said "thanks for playing the demo, press here to buy and download the full version".
I flushed this useless POCware from my cellphone then and there.
Hopefully this will get thrown out the same way the lexmark case did. It's obvious these companies are just doing this to make money knowing there really isn't anything wrong with it. --http://www.kunae.blogspot.com/
I've had two phones from Vodaphone and two from T-mobile, my girlfriend has had one from Vodaphone & 2 from O2. None of these phones was ever locked and we were free to put a SIM from another network into these phones at anytime. The only time I've seen locked phones on contracts is with Orange and Virgin. A good rule of thumb is that if the handset your buying/getting on contract has a network providers logo printed on it the its more than likely locked. This seems to be the case with all Pay As You Go phones and Orange contract phones.
To err is human. To forgive is not company policy.
if you ask them.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
But never too late!
I came up with this idea about 2 years ago. Looks like they followed suit...
(Still not logged in because slashdot still sucks)
The sad thing is I submitted this story yesterday morning before it was appearing on BoingBoing and it got rejected. Not only is this old news now but the submitted copied it from another source.
"Why are the phone companies concerned w/ the phone being locked or not. If I bought a one cent phone, and had to sign up for a two year contract to get it, then I am stuck in a two year contract. If I mod the phone, I am still stuck in a two year contract. If I jump up and down on the phone, I am still stuck in a two year contract. If I play some skeet shooting w/ the phone as the pigeon, I am still stuck in a two year contract. If I sign up for service with another provider in another country w/ the same phone, how is this hurting the first company? In other words, they are still getting the money from me according to the contract, so why do they care?"
Well considering how slashdotters treat contracts (implicit or otherwise). e.g. [1] one shouldn't have to ask "why"?
[1] Piracy, cable/satellite theft, abusing broadband TOS.
What these companies are doing is selling a VERY useful item at an incredible loss, and attempting to legislate the consumers' USE of the product. In a very real sense they are attempting to use social controls to *force* the public into doing business their way.
This is, to my mind, outright evil for fairly obvious reasons. But from a strict business sense, it's idiocy. Look at Microsoft and the X-box. They sell a repackaged PC with crackable hardware at (we think) a loss... so they use laws and threats and intimidation to stop people from using their purchased X-Box as they see fit.
That's not the razor blade model. I can't convert my razor blade handle into a hammer or screwdriver or something. But I CAN convert a mobile phone or an X-Box into something entirely useful that negates their business model. And all they can use are laws to force me to play the game their way. Laws that undermine the very definition of legal possession that is a requirement for a capitalist system to function.
For if we don't have the right to use products we purchase as we please, what worth are they?
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
Phone handsets (at least the latest on the market) cost hundreds of dollars. When you sign up for a contract or buy a pre-pay handset you generally get them for a fraction of that price as the network makes the money back on the calls.
If you allow customers to unlock their handsets then the neworks will put handset prices up sigificantly as they have to try to make a profit.
So complain all you like about your rights - either you get stuck with one network for a period of time or you pay a lot more for handsets up front.
Sure, the phone company subsidizes your phone hardware by locking you into a certain term length of contract... So, if you unlock your phone and use it with another provider, YOU'RE STILL STUCK WITH THE TERMS OF THE CONTRACT. Therefore, what's the point of worrying about locking the customer out? A contract's a contract.
1) Sign up for cell phone service with the provider you want to stick with.
2) For your free (or super-discounted) phone, get the most expensive one they have.
3) Unlock that phone.
4) Sell it on eBay as an unlocked phone for possibly more than retail price.
5) PROFIT!!
6) Buy the unlocked phone you really want from an online retailer.
See, instead of your provider giving you some phone you don't want, they gave you its value in $$ which you applied to a phone you really wanted. That's what I did with T-mobile, and it got me $140 off a $230 phone I wanted.
Hooray!
With the first link, the chain is forged.
have any of you ever tried to buy a phone from motorola directly? You can't. They don't sell them like that. Personally I'd rather buy phones from the makers, instead of the insanely marked up phones they sell the contracts with.
Phone's cost, 50-100 dollars.
Mark up to make profit 10-20 dollars.
Mark Up by companies to make contracts appealing, 50-100 dollars.
It's a bullshit industry because every cellular company is out there to get you into contracts by offering new phones instead of keeping a good old phone. That's one of the reasons T-mobile appeals to me and others, because they offer short 1 year contracts. Hopefully that one company won't change.
I went around and around to get a phone repaired through Motorola. They sent me an ATTWS branded phone that wouldn't work with my ATTWS SIM card. First reaction I had was to call ATTWS, they told me they don't have the unlock codes and I need to call Motorola. Calling Motorola gave me the same runaround, THEY don't have the codes, ATTWS does! I finally spoke to someone in the Consumer Advocacy group in Moto and they gave me the unlock code in about 5 minutes. I'm sure ATTWS had the codes but that would kill their business model if they allowed someone to put another SIM card in!
PS: It was a quad-band "World" phone which meant I could use it anywhere in the "world" with ATTWS's SIM and international roaming rates. Not that I did but if I wanted to use it with a prepaid SIM in Europe, I couldn't - even if I was still paying ATTWS each month under contract.
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
The manufacturer really doesn't care if the phone is locked or not. They just want to move phones to the service providers (the majority of phones are sold directly from manufacturer to service provider). Manufacturers don't lock phones broadly, they lock it to each individual service provider. Therefore, it's the provider who asks the manufacturer for the lock to be implemented. That's why service providers were talked about in the article.
Interesting, the nameless operator is most likely NOT T-Mobile, as I have been a customer with them for several years, and they will unlock your phone FOR you for FREE, just by emailing them and asking them to do so.
There are some limitations, like you have to have been a customer for 90 days, in good standing, etc. but if you email them and ask them to send you the unlock code, they will do so in a couple of days.
They have unlocked several Nokias for me in the past.
Just my experience.
Ocean is land, covered with water.
Using the DMCA like this is blatantly illegal especially after the appeals court ruling. It's also ammunition to use the next time Congress tries passing future laws: It's evidence that people will try to stretch the law beyond all reasonable bounds.
The proper way for phone companies to recoup their handset-discounts is either through contracts or preferably by offering such good service that nobody will want to switch.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
How do cellular contracts compare with land-lines?
If you use a land-line phone, at least over here, you can only choose between having service from one company, or no service (for local calls and basics).
(At least up to recently, before VoIP started being available)
Since I switched to cellular-only and got rid of my landline, I've had excellent contracts which cost me on average equal or less per month than my old landline. And in general, each cellphone lasted the length of my contract before starting to deteriorate or when a newer more interesting model came out.
Why is it that the expensive "pre-pay" phones are locked? (UK/EU)
These locks are a way to
(A) enforce a contract clause- The contract is still valid without the SP Lock
and/or (B) Enforce a revenue stream from a customer, instead of using a competition based system- I can be in contract with/have more then one prepay provider but a SP lock forces me to stick to one.
Anyone who has ever worked in mobile telecomms will tell you, its all a huge racket. After a call is connected within a mobile network, its all profit, charged per minute. Its costs little to nothing to receive an incoming call on an exsisting network, with exsisting relationships with other providers. Who's ever provider initiated the call gets the cash so it pays (lots) to have people use your network.
but all this will (or should) be moot with VOIP
www.microsoft.com/athome/sec urity/children/kidtalk.mspx Was This Information Useful?
T-Mobile UK seem happy to unlock phones once you are out of service, but when i signed up there they accidentally gave me an unlocked phone.
Likewise T-Mobile US seem happy to unlock your handset if you've been a customer for more than 6 months.
The biggest surprise i had is that you cant put a T-Mobile UK sim into a locked T-Mobile US phone... not allowing that seems ridiculous.
(and if people won't agree to that prospect, then perhaps it's not a good deal and people acting in their own best interest are right to avoid it.)
What I have a problem with is Congress passing sweeping laws dictating things I, the consumer, CANNOT do with my own property... which then allows companies to prop up faulty business models with legal threats.
There is no - absolutely ZERO - reason that I should not be legally allowed to mod the X-Box I paid $200 for to run Linux, and never buy a MS-licensed game title in my life. Yet I am not. And therefore MS can sell these highly useful mini-computers at a loss (we think) and use legal threats to keep me from using my own property.
THAT is what I have a problem with. Laws that strip me of my rights as a consumer so that businesses can implement flawed plans which are backed up, not by good logic or economics, but by the FBI.
That way leads madness.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
There are literally a dozen sites that will do it for free including NokiaFree. That's why I bought a prepaid Nokia phone because I could unlock it and change it to a post pay phone on any North American GSM carrier.
I'm Belgian, living in Finland andI go from one country to the other at least once a year. I live roughly 11 months a year in Finland, and buy a prepayed SIM card (fixed value at purchase, but rechargable) and use that during the time I'm in Belgium. This entire locking phones buisness seems to be a rther typical Anglo-saxon problem. I have never purchased a phone that was locked.. EVER! All I need o do, when I go ANYWHERE in the world, is take out my Nokia, open it up and put in a prepayed card I buy in whatever country I am. I've done this all over Europe, and never had any problems whatsoever, since the introduction of GSM standards. Then again, I've always had Nokia, so my experience is rather limited.
Okay, so if they say you can't change the part of your phone that allows you to connect to different networks, then what about changing some of the features of your phone? Is changing the WAP settings on your phone or using software like BitPim going to be considered a violation of DMCA as well? I sure hope not. Actually, I hope they get shot down like Lexmark so this issue doesn't come up in the first place.
In Finland, it is illegal to sell a locked phone. Once again -- manufacturers in Finland cannot legally sell a phone that is locked to one carrier.
Hmm.
My razor works with any razor blade that fits. I am not restricted to only buying my blades from the same manufacturer as my razor.
The courts have already established that trying to use the DMCA as a protection racket isn't going to work. At least it won't work for anyone but the entertainment industry. Wasn't that their legislative baby? The cell service providers are going to need to pony up more cash, more private jet rides and more very accommodating "flight attendants" for their Congress creatures if they want to get their own sweetheart legislation. Cheap bastards, quit trying to piggyback on someone elses gains obtained by graft! How tacky. Start coughing up your own graft.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I bet those same companies are not also claiming that "Companies that lock their cellphones are engaging in anticompetitive behavior"...
I figure if I pay for a phone, it's mine... and I should be entitled to use it however I want.
I bought my phone without the discount and without the contract, with a nice non-discounted $300 pricetag, so I'd have the freedom of buying minutes when I wanted / needed (as I didn't use my phone all that much). Later on in the year, I went to visit my girlfriend in the US, and had to buy an unlocking kit just to be able to use another provider. They wouldn't even let me roam because I didn't have a contract!
If you ask me, they gave me no choice really, as I simply wasn't going to sign any sort of contract and there was no other way to use my phone in the States other than unlocking it and using it with a local provider at my destination.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
What's wrong with this picture?
I have a Samsung phone from Cingular, and even though I can upload ringtones to it for just the price of Cingular web bandwidth (overpriced but not in the $2 for a ringtone range), all those ringtones are so quiet as to be practically useless. Only the built in ones (and ones you buy from Cingular) are loud enough to use.
It would hopefully only take one major company to change its policy before the others followed suit, but I don't see that happening. Companies can more and more often assume political and technical ignorance on the part of their consumers. And this leads to all the DRM fun these days.
I have used TMobile for a few years now (need to desperately get out of it by the way).. and they have on more than one occassion unlocked my phone for free. All I had to do was call up customer service, who would capture the IMEI number and ask me to call back in a couple of days. When I did, they'd give me the "unlock code", which I would be required to punch in, and the phone would be unlocked -- just like that.
1) Build a kick-ass wireless network from scratch
2) Staff your call centers and service counters with the BEST
people you can find.
3) Offer to unlock anyones phone, from any provider for free and
put it on your network.
4) Offer no-contract service to anyone
5) Profit!
A good friend will help you move. A really good friend will help you move a body.
The courts will only rule against the cellphone companies if someone fights them long and hard in the courts. Many unconstitutional laws become defacto law simply because they're never taken to court in the first place, and hence never overturned. Be sure before you start, however, that you have Deep Pockets for this fight, because your opponents sure do.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
My cell phone in the US works in 50 states, at no extra charge for roaming or long distance. Each of these states is equivalent in size to a European country. (not exactly of course, but close enough for my example)
We also have completely different billing. We pay a flat rate for all phone calls, both incoming and outgoing, and typically more time is included than we actually use.
By contrast in Europe you have many different countries, each either their own network. Cross a border (which is about as easy as crossing a state line for us) and you are paying roaming in many cases, while we do not in the US. (Plans were this is roaming exist, but nobody I know has this anymore) You also have a caller pays model, so there is no incentive to keep the cost of calling a cell phone down.
What this means is that changing a SIM card is something I can do in theory, but in practice there is no reason to ever do that, so I don't. In Europe there is good reason you would want to change your SIM card, so you do it.
When I was in Europe people asked how to contact me, so I gave them my cell number (company phone, number was from France while I was in Spain), and they all said "no, your hotel number". In the US nobody thought it a big deal to call me on my cell phone, even when it was an out of state number.
Note that I'm only presenting half the story. There are benefits to Europe's way of doing things - or so they claim (I don't like it, but that might be just what I'm used to). Before repeating any argument you would do well to find the rest of the facts as I do not have them all.
Everything has extra "features" that you have to pay for can companies want to lock you in. I hate being told what i can and cannot do with something that i BOUGHT. if i want to sync up my ipod with 10 different pc's, i should be able to. if i want to install linux on my xbox, it shouldn't be a problem. if i want to use my phone with other services or connect it to my pc to get pictures off or put ringtones on, i should be able to. if you are going to tell me what i can and cannot do, then why are you SELLING me a product?
Okay, I'm reading about DMCA and phones. Now which part of the cellphone are we talking about?? The only thing I can possibly think of is the OS.
/. you'd think somebody would've done this already. Can't be sued over DMCA for using your own software on your own phone if you're not using their controlling software to begin with, I would think.
Some of these phones are running off of hardware-logic, some are running off of software. Obviously the hardware phones are certainly covered by the DMCA, but what about the software-driven ones?
If you've got a problem with your phone being locked, why not simply wipe the entire phone, and reprogram it with your own OS custom-suited to your needs? All you should need to know from the carrier is how you connect to them, then make your own code (hopefully streamlined enough to fit in the phone) and use your phone.
With the apparent (supposed?) amount of programmers here on
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
At lot of people here have the complaint that the lockin does not allow you to change phone providers, even if you pay the cancellation fee. My primary beef is the idiotic feature-locks put on phones by money-grubbing cellphone companies. Sure, they'll sell you a data cable for your phone, but if you want to download your address book, upload/download a MIDI file for your ringer, or send pictures etc you must do it all through the network and thus pay exorbitant fees. My provider (Telus, in Canada) is quite bad for this. You need to browser their website - either with the phone (data fees) or computer - and then upload the file (which you pay for), and download it on your phone (data fees). Since you're doing it through the Telus webpage, you're limited to *their* crappy selection... really if I'm going to play with my phone and put on a custom ringer, I want to use my own midi files... maybe a cool gametune or something like that... and not the shitty radio-top-50 crap that is mostly available online. More importantly, I'd like to backup (or sync) my freakin' phone so that when this one dies (and it will, they all do) I have all my numbers ready for the next craptacular phone they send me.
:-)
That being said, anyone know where to get info on opening my "AudioVox CDM-8900T" Telus-phone? Google hasn't been particular helpful in this
The software on the phone IS a copyrighted work and, if the DMCA has any legitimacy at all (which is highly debatable) would certainly apply to the software on the phone
BUT
I'm pretty sure Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Qualcomm et al would take issue with the carriers claming to own that IP. The mfrs have absolutely no interest in having their products locked to a specific carrier. In fact it hurts both them and the users of their products. In every market except NA, the end users are the customers which is why the products offered in those markets are so superior to the broken crap the carriers foist on us here in NA ("how does this feature allow us to milk the customer?" being the only question the carriers are really interested in).
Luckily those traveling internationally don't have to worry about the DMCA. Sadly companies like T-Mobil will make unlocking your phone a hassle so that they can rip you off (i.e. it was 1.90$ a minute to use my phone in Romania).
I violated the DMCA a number of months ago. That's ok, though. It's violated me for a number of years.
What do I tell my future wife?
if(!toilet_paper) roll.replace(new roll);
that so many slashdotters can see the illegal practices of mobile phone companies locking the users' property but cannot see MS/SONY/NINTENDO illegally locking the customers' property?
as one can see in this discussion, "business model" is no excuse for stealing (yes it is the right word) the right to fully access one's own property.
so why is it that i see countless people attacking mobile phone vendors and see countless people defending the rights of console manufacturers in taking away customers' property rights?
and no, there are other ways of preventing copied games being played. so that's no excuse.
the real reason is the same as mobile phone companies... to fleece the customers and milk them for money. never mind the fact that they have to illegally prevent customers from owning their property in order to do it...
and soon, thanks to Insidious Computing... your and my beloved PCs (personal computer, not x86 computer) will no longer belong to use either.
i just love the smell of illegal business models in the morning.
Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
Maybe the cell phone OEMs should start sueing the providers for cripling the copyrighted software they installed in the factory. It almost sounds like Dell suing Linux distro makers for allowing people to not use the preinstalled Windows.
Once the contract is over, finished and not renewed or ended early with fee paid or you got out of it because of an unauthorized change or new service fee the phone is yours do do with a s you see fit. You can shoot it or burn it or blow it up or even use it with another provider. If you're still under contract it depends on what it says. I'd also consider instant rebate and mial in rebate. If you get an instant rebate with service it can be considered installment payment for the phone, but if it's mail-in-rebate then you did the work and paid postage and the rebate money and the phone should be yours.
F7 doesn't work, ignore spelling and grammar
or I'll loose warranty
You probably picked up the grammer of "loose" instead of "lose" from reading
the typing habits of the morons here in the USA.
I have tracked the proliferation of this particular piece of crappy grammer,
throughout the internet, over the last 15 years.
There are a few more.... (E.G. alot instead of A LOT) but I'm sure the
general public doesn't care.
Thanks for reading
... blah, sorry. Should say: "GSM is not a must".
(And technically I could buy a new phone now, but there's some funding uncertainty about our research grant and I need to wait til December to be sure I'm still funded, hence will stay in this job. I'm being smart and waiting and not just using my savings for it. My current phone works fine).
i am a soviet space shuttle
You're welcome. And you know, I'm really somehow concerned and confused about this "loose"vs."lose" (and similar - though alot is not amonf them ;P) in my (mine?) English (heh, that's what you get, I guess, when you'll learn it primarily from TV initialy, without any rules (here in PL films are traditionaly "dubbed" with the lector, original voices intact) - bad habits)
One that hath name thou can not otter
I had no problem getting my phone unlocked with Cingular. Yes they require that you finish the first term of your contract (1 year), which is reasonable because that's what you signed up for. But after, the phone is free to use on whatever network you choose.
A while back I was interested in how to get ringtones onto cellphones over the network. One of the standards is a DRM format. The format is completely broken if the carriers allow users to modify the phones. The DRM format requires that the clients respect the rights object and not do anything beyond what they are allowed. If the phone is modified, then that fantasy is broken. No more Britney Spears videos on your phone, oh my!
I've never had a problem getting cingular to unlock a phone. I've done 5 or 6 with them.
You have to be in good standing with them.
The only people that have trouble are ex AT&T customers as AT&T had a policy of zero unlocking.
I doubt that it's Cingular the article is referring to.
I've always been a big fan of Nokia brand phones, they're very easy to unlock, and they work well. You simply remove the sim card, enter the unlock code on the keypad, the phone reboots and presto, it's unlocked. You then just put your sim card (or any sim card) back in, and the phone is back on the air, with whomever's sim is installed. Getting the unlock codes for Nokia phones is very easy. You need to know the phones IMEI (serial number, usually on a sticker under the battery) and the service provider to whom the phone is initially locked. There are several web sites that will take that information and then give you the unlock codes for free. You can also download the unlock code generator and run it on your own PC, again, entering the IMEI and service provider info. Out comes the unlock code. It really couldn't be much easier, you can do it yourself in a couple minutes, you don't need to take the phone into any service shop, pay a fee or any nonsense like that. I've unlocked both mine and my wife's phones, but we're still on the original network. When the contract expires, I'll shop for the best deal. I additionally activated the "enhanced voice codec" via another secret code, and now the voice quality is better.
We'll unlock it free if you:
*Paid retail
*Finished your contract (naturally or early termination and payment)
*Are going abroad
There are some slight variations, but most can't call in and get it unlocked willy-nilly. If you don't meet the requirements we must state in the unlock request what special circumstances override policy, which then has to be approved by your manager.
I haven't heard of anything new on the unlocking front at Cingular, and checked over our policy just a couple weeks ago.
Being geeks, Slashdot knows what a retail phone cost, the average joe calling in is shocked. They think of cell phones like they do a home phone, $5 from Wal-Mart and most don't give a shit if it's locked.
All that being said, if it _is_ Cingular doing it I tend to attribute it to stupidity rather than malice against the user. I say stupidity because the people running Cingular are so out of touch that they think being the largest native network (Cing/ATT) is the sole incentive to raise the prices on subsidized handsets and basic plans. They think they can market us as a premium service, and now offer no free phones through customer service and many corporate stores.
They're sincerely out of touch.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.