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What You Can Do About the Phone Unlocking Fiasco
itwbennett writes "Now that the ridiculous phone unlocking law is a done deal, and we all understand exactly what that means (i.e., 'fines of up to $500,000 and imprisonment of up to five years'), you might be left wondering what can you do about it. Well, you could start by lending your John Hancock to this petition at the White House's 'We The People' platform. It's already over halfway to the number of signatures required to get a response from the executive branch."
...seriously - even if it got 500,000 signatures, I doubt the White house will do a damned thing about it. The law would have to be reversed by Congress, and right now, even if Obama wanted to, he's going to save his political capital for those fights which advance his own goals
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
So we have this situation where let's say I get an iPhone 5, the iPhone 5 (16GB) runs at about $650, I sign up on a contract and pay approx $200 for a 3 year term. If I break the contract I have to pay around $400 to cancel my contract. So if I unlock my phone and goto another carrier how does that deprive the carrier of their 'investment' ?
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
Notwithstanding that this could violate a cell phone provider's terms of service agreement, and one could still be accountable to their cell provider for violating that.
However, in Canada, the unlocking of cell phones is *expressly* legal.
And, if people who are, for instance, residents of California, are allowed to travel to Nevada and gamble and then return without consequence, I see no reason why a person from the USA could not also go into Canada and unlock their phone there without legal repercussions.
I smell a potentially profitable business opportunity for people who live in border towns.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
While the "We the People" petition is a nice symbolic measure, it's not likely to result in any real action even if it reaches the signature limit.
It'd be far better if everyone wrote letters to their congressional representatives. There are lots of guides on the internet for doing so, here's one:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/letterscongress.htm
... another reason to be so very glad that I am not American. It seems that unlocking a phone is more serious that assault.
"We have what we consider to be good competition so we are taking away one of the things that fosters that competition because these guys can't figure out how to run their businesses without our help."
Let's first recognize that the "cell phone" is in fact a radio. Now imagine if the radio in your car was locked to one station and you had to buy a new radio in order to listen to a different radio station. Imagine if you had to buy a new TV when switching cable providers. It's absurd. I've always thought that people should be able to buy hardware of their choosing and use it wherever it is compatible. These smartphones are little computers. I should be able to buy any hardware platform and load any OS on it. Then I should be able to go to any cellular ISP and install their radio/modem/SIM. (Note there are only 2 types of radio and 4 companies to chose from). It would be more expensive but there is no reason to make preposterous legislation around it.
A phone can be unlocked very easily with a firearm.
CTIA [Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association] explained that the practice of locking cell phones is an essential part of the wireless industry's predominant business model, which involves subsidizing the cost of wireless handsets in exchange for a commitment from the customer that the phone will be used on that carrier's service so that the subsidy can eventually be recouped by the carrier. CTIA alleged that the industry has been plagued by âoelarge scale phone trafficking operationsâ that buy large quantities of pre-paid phones, unlock them, and resell them in foreign markets where carriers do not subsidize handsets.
1. The industry business model is selling subsidized phones in exchange for a multi-year contract.
Most carriers have early termination fees that are prorated the longer you stick to your contract,
which directly reflects the cost of the subsidized phone they sold you.
The carrier could care less what happens to that phone, as long as I hold to my contract or pay the ETF.
2. If there is a big problem with pre-paid phones, then craft the unlocking exemption to exclude prepaid phones.
The CTIA must have gotten their guidance from the copyright industry, where singular counts of infringement are treated the same as large scale criminal enterprises.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
The petitions are worthless. Opium for the masses. No petition has ever had any useful effect.
No petition will ever have a useful effect, unless you count the placebo effect as useful: "I did something for my cause, now I can go back to sleep".
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
The ones that actually matter, anyway. Still, good luck with your petition guys.
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
My plan was to just ignore the law and unlock my phone anyway and -- oh wait, I buy my phones used on eBay to start with and don't even get involved in the whole carrier-subsidy treadmill.
It's pretty simple what you can do about it: Don't buy subsidized phones. Not only do you end up paying more for a subsidized phone, you lose your rights to do whatever you want with it.
I really don't understand why people are so up in arms about this. I'm a card carrying member of the EFF and ACLU and, apart from the fact that this is a criminal offense instead of a civil issue, I'm not really that concerned because the "loophole" is so simple: Buy your fucking phone instead of renting it.
Since old phones are grandfathered, don't buy a new phone as long as you can't use it the way you want to use it.
My phone is good enough and shows no sign of wear.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
I'll be ignoring the law, unlocking any damned phone I buy (I buy them on eBay or Craig's List, not on contract), and any division of government or commercial cellular entity that doesn't like it can lick the sweat off my balls.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Is there some explicit "no unlocking whatsoever" clause in the DMCA? As far as I'm aware, the only thing that's happened is that the explicit exemption for unlocking has expired. While I'm not volunteering to be the test case, it seems like there's a good case to be made that the generic DMCA language doesn't forbid unlocking.
In most cases, I'm not altering the software on the phone by unlocking it. I'm merely entering a code, and the phone already has software onboard specifically for the purpose of unlocking that phone when I enter said code.
To an Alpha, the Law is seen in the same light as a mugger. Both are potential threats, but neither are to be respected.
Organization has been around for ages - No matter how big one man gets, unless he joins a system, 10 men will be bigger than him.
That's kind of the point of the law - we have the entire country backing up the little man.... or at least that is how it is supposed to work
It doesn't work right in lots of cases - but it's better than everyone for himself.
Hell, let'em completely stiffle innovation, see what that does for their bottom line.
Like, you know, when the law was proposed, or accepted, years ago? Complaining after-the-fact is easy and if a government acts on such complaints, it would become an enormous mess. I don't particularly care eitherway -I live in the Europe, most countries here require telco's to provide unlock procedures within one year of the purchase of a phone-, but if you actually care, you should take action before the law is signed. Fixing laws after signing makes the government unreliable. Problematic laws should be addressed, but this should not become the rule, as it sometimes seems to have become.
Is it just me, or is capitalism in USA becoming even scarier than socialism in USSR was? I mean, I understand ending up in a mental institution (or a gulag in earlier times) for criticising the party. That's harsh and ruthless and unfair and evil, but at least understandable. But life-ruining fines and jail time for downloading an mp3 or using a device you own to the fullest? That's just insane. Well, not insane. It's exactly the same thing. It's a punishment for resistance against the Powers that Be. In USSR this was the government and the party, so you were punished for speaking up against government. In USA government does not matter. In USA it's the corporations, so you'll get punished for doing anything at all that annoys them.
Compared to being ruled by these corporations, politburo looks like a good idea...
--Coder
Imagine the fun if they did something similar with operating systems. You bought your laptop with Windows on it. $500,000 and a 5 year prison sentence for switching it to Linux next. After all, Microsoft expects the revenue from their new app store and you are depriving them off that by changing to an open platform!
It's no more ridiculous than this idea.
even if Obama wanted to, he's going to save his political capital for those fights which advance his own goals
Obama got twice as much money as Romney in the last election from Verizon. And that was just one cellular carrier.
You all think the law as it stands was not very much supported and driven by Democrats? Well enjoy laying in the bed you all voted for. I'm not going to sign the petition because I figure America should get what it asked for, full bore. Enjoy the next four years rubes! That should give you just enough time to truly understand the term Liberal Fascism.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not only do you end up paying more for a subsidized phone, you lose your rights to do whatever you want with it.
That is not true from many angles.
For one thing a data plan for an iPhone on the major carriers is the same, subsidized or no. So you'd pay more for an unlocked phone, and then pay as much as the guy who bought a phone with a plan for service over two years. Yes you could bail earlier but most people keep the same carrier a few years.
You could pay less going to a company like T-Mobile but there is very real service degradation. To me even though in the long run that could save money the loss of wider coverage and aggravation makes it a bad tradeoff.
Secondly, ALL of the major carriers now will unlock the iPhone for you on request - but for international use only. So it's not quite right to say you can't do pretty much anything you want with it - you can, just not in the country you bought the phone in (which to most people is what really matters).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
To me the whole aspect of unlocking in the U.S. is nearly moot because most phones cannot move between AT&T and Verizon, because the technologies used are so different. Verizon and Sprint both use CDMA which was never designed with the SIM approach in mind.
About all you can do is go from one of the others to T-Mobile. Now I don't hate T-Mobile, but it's a hard and fast truth you are not going to get the same coverage nor network speed there as you would one one of the major carriers.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Here in Brazil, it is illegal to sell locked phones.
How about not buying any locked phones?
Technological limitations on unlocking your phone aren't the only questionable business practices of cellular providers. I think we need both legalized unlocking, better billing practices, and limitations on the contracts. That is why I put together http://wh.gov/y6kK. Please take a moment to sign it. Body text follows:
Customers of cellular phone plans in the US are treated poorly. We would like to see regulations that require things like:
1) A bill that reflects the advertised price, and separate line items that show the cost of the phone plan and the phone.
2) A bill that shows the cost of the phone purchased and how much of the phone has been paid off
3) Upon completion of a contract the customer has the right to have any technological restrictions removed that prevent its use on other carriers networks.
4) The right to buy out the phone and terminate the contract at any time.
5) A limit to the terms of contracts allowed.
6) The right to buy a 3rd party phone and join a carriers network with no contractual obligations.
Fact 1: There is the DMCA law, and it won't go away.
Fact 2: Unlocking your phone yourself requires a violation of the DMCA law.
Fact 3: It is entirely reasonable to want an unlocked phone. And it is entirely reasonable that anyone should be able to get an unlocked phone without breaking any criminal laws.
Three years ago, it was recognized that most people could only fulfil their wish to have an unlocked phone by unlocking it themselves, so an exemption was made that the DMCA violation of unlocking the phone yourself was not considered a crime. Now it is assumed that people can indeed get unlocked phones, so there is no need to unlock yourself, so there is no need for an exemption.
Now here is the conclusion: Since you are not allowed to unlock a phone yourself, surely your service provider _must_ unlock it when you ask for it and cannot refuse. So instead of asking for permission to violate the DMCA law, people should ask their service provider to unlock the phone and take them to court if they refuse.
Yes, that phone unlocking law is totally ridiculous.
That law suits North Korea much better than it does in America.
But the fact that this has happened in the United States of America says a lot about how the Americans themselves have changed.
It used to be that the congress critters were afraid of their constituents.
It used to be that those living inside (and the surrounding area) of Washington D.C. have to listen to the people living outside of that area.
No more.
Nowadays we have ridiculous laws being passed, without even a single objection from the public.
Nowadays the Americans are so complacent, that the congress (and the White House) get to do anything that they want to do, because they are not afraid of their constituents anymore.
The death of Mr. Aaron Swartz should not have happened in America.
America supposed to be a country where abusive officials do not get any foothole.
In fact, the birth of the United States of America was because the British government got too abusive, so much so that the people rose up and chased out the Brits.
I used to live in America in the 1960's till early 2000's, and I've witnessed the change myself.
Americans no longer care for freedom.
Americans no longer willing to fight for liberty.
In other words, America has withered.
Can someone please change the wording of the American national anthem ?
The one about "Land of the Free", "Home of the Brave", in more ways than one, no longer apply.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
If you buy phones off ebay and craigslist that somebody got for $99 on contract, then defaulted on the contract and sold it, you're basically buying stolen goods. So good luck with that.
Not even close. Clearly you have never lived hand to mouth, where debt is only an illness; downsizing; unexpected emergency...or simply living. I feel pity for your lack of empathy.
Your credit rating is going to take a massive hit which affect all aspects of Life; You have to move to alternative and more expensive solutions (PAYG). Here is the exciting part...you now cannot use your number, but you still have to pay for it. The debt is *sold* to thugs who are *guarded* by the police, who take items of equal selling value from your property.
Ironically in context of this discussion that $99 might have have helped keep the wolves from the door.
The petition didn't have 57,000 signatures, it needed 57,000 more signatures. As of right now it needs 54,629 more signatures.
That was my plan long before this anyway.
The push by the carriers to make this happen is late it coming and might have helped, but the cat is out of the bag already.
When it comes to hand-held computing devices with telephone capability, I care that the device is up-to-date with software and in my control so that I can do what I want and what I need and that it doesn't act against me. Carrier controlled, locked devices suffer from a lack of those things.
Initially, I was going to get a Samsung phone, but then Nexus 4 came out. Got that. I'll be buying my way out of my expensive contract soon and will go pre-paid. Suddenly, I will be in control of my phone and my phone service and spending less money on top of that.
Even if the law was reversed, it wouldn't make much difference. Phones are not easily supported by the community and carrier-devices aren't well supported by carriers. So anything other than a manufacturer supported device will not do.
You can get the hell out of that country and take your money and business with you!
I hate the USA. And I am always extremely happy, when they manage to shoot themselves in the foot. The 'We the people' petition was introduced, which certainly was a nice thing to do. You needed 25000 votes to be heard. What happens? One of the first things idiotic Americans petition is to build a death star. As a direct result sensible petitions like changing this stupid unlocking law new need 100000 votes. Well done, Americans. I hope you don't get all the necessary votes. Thank your brain dead Star Wars fans.
I plan to just disobey it.
It seems now they have made the cell phone companies problem the government's problem. Enforcing this new law is surely going to cost the gove money - and save the cell phone company's money. Since the government has no money except what it take from taxpayers, guess who is subsiding who.
Maybe they just should stop subsidies all together and cut the inefficient scheme.
Isn't it possible to buy an unlocked phone to begin with, if that is what you want?
The fight should be to make any and all contract violations noncriminal.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
What you need is a requirement to list the phone bill separately from the phone.
February Service Plan XXL - $80
Phone payment - $20
Total: - $100
Amount of time remaining on contract - 5 months
Payoff amount for phone - $100
After the phone is paid off the monthly bill would then drop to $80 and no contract. The phone itself should then be unlocked at the completion of the payment plan.
While I agree completely that a vendor (I'm looking at you Sony) should not be able to dictate what you do with something once you own it, you don't actually own a subsidized cell phone until the contract is paid out.
Let's be honest. Nobody really thinks they are getting a $600 phone for $200 do they? Surely everyone with a $600 phone that they've only paid $200 (out of pocket) for realizes that the other (more than, even) $400 is a "loan" from the vendor for which they are making monthly payments for, not at all unlike the mortgage you took out on your home and the car you bought on time. I think everyone understands in those cases that the bank owns those until you pay off the loan.
Why is it so difficult to understand that your subsidized phone is owned by your carrier until you've paid out the contract?
Want your phone unlocked? Then man up, pay for it in full, up front, and stop whining.
How the carriers could've just, oh I dunno, raised their early termination fees. But instead, they get their pet lawmakers to effectively make contract violation a Federal felony. Something tells me this isn't about loss of contract profits.
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
If you don't care about having a new phone, buy an old, unlocked one. If you want a new phone, get a carrier subsidized phone. In one to two years, do you know what you can do? Get another carrier subsidized one for the same price. Seriously, who does this effect? I guess people that get a carrier subsidized phone then change plans every 6 months. You know, the same people the carrier actually is losing money on. Do you see why they don't want their customers to do that?
The petitions are *insidious*. They divert people away from doing what really matters and helps -- writing your elected representatives (and for that matter, staying on top of legislation enough to know what your representatives are getting up to) -- and refocus it onto something that will have no practical policy effect whatsoever. So what if the White House responds -- what do you think "they" are going to say, "oh yeah, you're totally right, Mr. Obama is going to single-handedly kill this new law right now"? It's going to be some cookie-cutter response about how important the voice of the American people is, blah blah blah, and then right back to business as usual. Fuck me, posting a rant on Facebook has more potential to effect political change than those petitions.
The problem is that people either don't care about what our lawmakers are doing in Washington, or they do care but are too busy working two jobs to try to make ends meet, or are too distracted by the infotainment industry telling them about everything *except* what matters. The only time people really mobilize is when something they really, really hold dear is threatened (a la SOPA, when people thought the government was going to take away their Internets) and there is actually enough media coverage that a critical mass of people know about it.
Unlock your phone... then destroy it.
I'm so clever I amuse even myself.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
I don't have a contract and buy my phones at full price. I can unlock them whenever I wish. And, because I am with T-Mobile, I can simply call and they will send me the unlock code and instructions.via email.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Not buy locked phones. Take your business to providers that don't have factory locks. Vote with your wallet (which is why I bougth a verizon unlocked phone and brought it to Europe)
Drop me an email and send me money and I get you a factory unlocked phone from Germany. schreiber.in.berlin at gmail dot com.
Online petitions are worthless
When are you morons going to realize that these online petitions are worse than meaningless?
Why do you think your signature means anything. You aren't going to vote differently, its obvious from the last couple of elections that people bitch about politicians and then do nothing to effect change. There is no reason for anyone to give a flying fuck what signature your petition is on. Worse still is you're not bright enough to realize how easy it is to fake said petitions, making them even less useful.
There is no effort in collecting online petitions, you just put a form up one SOMEONE ELSES website. Starting a petition this way, and 'running it' requires zero effort and thats exactly the kind of response you'll get.
Signing a petition ... ESPECIALLY AN ONLINE PETITION FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR CHAIR just shows exactly how little you care about the issue.
You aren't going to get more back out of it than you put in, thats not the way the universe works.
If you want to effect change, its going to take a whole hell of a lot more than clicking 'I agree' on some retarded website.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Do what I did. Pay $175 for an unlocked phone from China and get a SIM from Straight talk. If they can ship jobs overseas and bring the goods back, why can't I cut out the middleman?
Capitalism requires the absence of government interference in the market, not the presence of it. Whether or not corporations benefit financially from that interference is irrelevant. What defines capitalism is the lack of interference (i.e. coercion) in free market economics.
On the upside, you'd make a good politician.
What is the punishment for stealing a phone?
Don't even have to be armed and storm in, just shop lift.
You could just unlock your phone anyway. Who is going to police that?
$500 000 fine? Good luck getting any money.
1) I understand your argument, but I sure wouldn't want to be the one rolling the dice in a US court to see if a court would find it legal or not. Lots of developed countries have the idea that their laws apply everywhere in the world. .... JUST ... DON'T ... CARE. Most Americans don't travel outside of North America, so there's just not a lot of interest in unlocked phones. Some Americans do care a lot, but most don't. In fact, my unlocked phone is powered off and in storage. My main mobile phone (or "cell phone" as we Americans say) is an iPhone and my work requires it to be unjailbroken, so I can't unlock it. They pay the bills for it, so I have to live by their rules. The next time I travel overseas, I'll just take my unlocked phone with me. I doubt that putting unlocking businesses right across the border would be very lucrative. I'm not sure about this, but I'm under the impression that the Canadian market is pretty much just like the American one and subsidized locked phones are the way everybody goes.
2) I have an unlocked phone (I bought it unlocked some years ago) but the fact is that most Americans
it has taken how long for 50k signatures? closing in on 3 weeks to get 50k signatures for aaron schwartz https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck
Nearly everybody needs at least some degree of both luck and hard work to succeed. It's easy to point to folks who show little evidence of hard work, but there are certainly counterexamples -- I'd say Ping Fu is one.
MS Surface is expensive and not that interesting to jailbreak. The cheap Google Chromebooks are much more likely to be a target because they too lock down the BIOS making changes difficult. Ubuntu can be installed already, but It won't run Windows unless you run it in Virtualbox on Ubuntu.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/132300-unleash-your-chromebox-how-to-dual-boot-ubuntu-linux-on-your-chrome-os-device
I'm thinking of picking up a Chromebook to dual boot.
Better yet: why not organize a good, old-fashioned act of civil disobedience? I'm thinking along the lines of several thousand people meeting up outside the Lincoln Memorial and simultaneously unlocking their phones.
Distract the masses with things like immigration reform, gay rights, abortion, things that get people excited. Then while everyone is screaming about those things, pass laws that screw over the common person.
Does the geek ever listen to what he is saying?
Each of the issues mentioned here have a profound intimacy and significance, They represent the driving - primal - forces currently at work in American law and politics.
His pet political causes sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench because, quite frankly, my dear, no one gives a damn.
Producers invest a lot of money developing products consumers want. They have every right to protect their investment: including (but not limited to) licensing the firmware on a physical device.
As a software engineer and entrepreneur, I am happy to see laws that protect producers.
If you don't like it:
-There's nothing stopping you from developing your own product that does not contain these restrictions.
-[Now], there is nothing stopping you from purchasing the "unlocked" device.
-There's nothing requiring you purchase or use the device at all.
Well, for starters don't 'lease' your phone. Then its yours do do as you please. if you cant afford the 400+ outright, then you get a subsidized ( leased ) phone and comply with contract until its paid off. Once its paid off, its once again, yours to do as you please.
This entire 'debate' is quite simple: You don't own the phone until its paid off.. You cant screw with stuff that isn't yours.
( now i disagree with it being a crime, but a TOS violation and instant termination and a fee, sure .. )
The White House doesn't make law, and does not control the Library of Congress.
Petition Congress, not the White House.
Basically just ignore the damn law like the goofy ass warning on dvds and do it anyway.
Is the correct phrase. While its under subsidy contract, its not yours...
"Yeah, we need some way of milking our customers, so if you could write a law for us to do so, that would be great..:"
The phones are fine out of the box. What critical benefits do people get from unlocking them except to steal from the app store?
You are confusing equipment that is bought and equipment that is leased-to-own for a 2 year period.
Until the 2 year lease is complete, YOU DO NOT OWN THE PHONE.
OTOH, if you buy your phone outright, then you cannot be forced into not changing anything on it. For example, Google sells a personal tracking device called the Nexus 4. This device is not locked to any provider, just drop a SIM into it from the provider you like. Don't like that provider, switch, as you like.
Simple.
If you unlock your phone that gives you freedom to use another network.
But it doesn't magically remove you from the contract you agreed to, so you still have to pay, and would be chased by whatever debt collection system they use.
You obviously would still have to pay for using the new carrier also if you swapped SIM.
Skipping the early termination fee may save you a big one off payment but doesn't negate the above.
This issues should solely be if you fail to pay your contracted fee's, and I fail to see why that should have anything other than normal contract law cover it.
The carriers are arguing they need to lock the phones to their network to get a commitment from a customer. Don't they have fixed term contracts with early termination fees for that?
In other words, if you want to get rich, forget working and buy a lottery ticket. It's much easier, less risky and more likely.
Agreed! Please don't try to start your own thing (and possibly be my competition). Instead, give in to your cynicism and start buying lottery tickets. Of course, you will need money to buy said tickets so we'll see you at work on Monday.
Sincerely,
Business Owners
How long until Americans finally get it : they live in Land of the shackled, not the free...
Apple has even more onerous network locks on their phones (say nothing of their software locks) so I'm not sure why you brought up them as an example. Then I did see your posts in the other story cheering Apple for their trademarks on the store layouts so maybe that's where you're coming from.
Our country is run on how much you are willing to pay all others need not apply.
It really is as simple as that.
Douchebag motherfuckers like you would rather see the country burn than doing anything to help just because you were wrong.
I'd really rather not see the country burn at all, what with me living here at all. But since the country as a whole voted for fire, what more can I do than attempt to shield myself and watch people get the very burning they so longed for? I mean, what are YOU going to do - sign a petition?? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
Children don't really learn a thing sometimes unless they are hurt by it. So I guess it goes with the electorate. I have no desire to stop a lesson in progress as we'll all be better off in the future for it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered American citizenry when some guy on a soapbox confirmed that freedom market share has dropped yet again, now advocated by less than a fraction of 1 percent of all the people he meets. Coming close on the heels of a recent editorial on Fox News which plainly stated haven't you shot yourselves yet good lord. Taco Cowboy added that he will be loading his shotgun and generator into his truck and, quote, "headin' fer the mesa", last visited 13 years ago by people fleeing the Y2K disaster in response to similar claims.
If you own a cell phone you will want to sign this petition. See my fb page for more information. Like and share my post. We need to get everyone involved and make cell phone unlocking legal once and for all. It's not fair hundreds of people are going out of business, many employees are being laid off and thousands of people won't be able to unlock their phones. See details here.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Inspired-Living-App-ILA-app/191597394319804
Direct Petition Link
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7
Lamenting about cell phones. If you do not like locked cell phones, buy them unlocked. Saves you money in the end.
If you do buy a subsidised phone, oh well live with it. In the end it is the providers phone, until you pay for it. YOU are the one that signed the contract, nobody forced you to do it.
Instead of complaining about locked cell phones, we should be complaining about the horrendous rates they charge for their phone rates. In other parts of the world people pay fractions of what we, in the US, are paying
This country sux. abandon ship.
-or ROM that phone into an Assult-phone
lets outlaw everything fuck it
I think its time to get rid of the current Communist government we have and replace it with a true Government for the people and by the people and stop passing these ridiculous laws curtailing our freedoms. The USA or shall I say: UASR is heading into a dictatorship and this is one example. America is no longer free and we are not free either. I say lets get rid of the current regime and establish a People's government where corporations can't rule anymore over anyone.
Unlocking a phone for use on a carrier? Our government really has gotten stupid!
can carriers really tell if you root/jailbreak your phone unless you walk into the retail store and show/tell them?