Unlocking Your Phone Will Soon Be Illegal

In the United States the Digital Millennium Copyright Act outlaws attempts to circumvent digital rights management tools. For a time, there was an exemption to this law regarding unlocking smartphones, but it its no longer in place. As of last week, it is no longer legal to unlock a phone without the express consent of the carrier.

While exemptions still exist that allow for jailbreaking and rooting of cellphones (for the next 3 years, anyways), this is not the case with tablet computers. A loophole still exists that allows used phones that were previously purchased or acquired (gifted, perhaps?) can still be unlocked.

What do you think about this provision of DMCA? Do you think carriers who subsidize phones for their clients should be able to decide what it done to the code they install? Tell us in the comments below!

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