White House Petition To Make Unlocking Phones Legal Passes 100,000 Signatures

An anonymous reader writes "A White House petition to make unlocking cell phones legal again has passed the 100,000 signature mark. Passing the milestone means the U.S. government has to issue an official response. On January 26th, unlocking a cell phone that is under contract became illegal in the U.S. Just before that went into effect, a petition was started at whitehouse.gov to have the Librarian of Congress revisit that decision. 'It reduces consumer choice, and decreases the resale value of devices that consumers have paid for in full. The Librarian noted that carriers are offering more unlocked phones at present, but the great majority of phones sold are still locked.'"

Comments

Clarification

[wonkey_monkey]

On January 26th, unlocking a cell phone that is under contract became illegal in the U.S

I don't have a big problem with that, but this is the really important part:

As of January 26, consumers will no longer be able unlock their phones for use on a different network without carrier permission, even after their contract has expired.

Re:You know, you can buy an unlocked phone

[compro01]

Replace "for the next two years" with "for the next infinity years".

The anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA makes it illegal to ever unlock the phone without the carrier's permission, regardless of whether the contract is up or not.