In February, the White House petition initiated to undo the questionable policy change outlawing new cell phones from being unlocked reached its goal of securing 100,000 signatures, the threshold required to mandate a response from The White House.
Earlier this week, the White House responded and it confirmed the Obama Administration's support for the legalization of cell phone unlocking.
On Thursday, the effort gained even more momentum as U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Wireless Consumer Choice Act. Although it remains to be seen if this bipartisan senate bill will sail through to passage, not many obstacles are expected in the short term.
"Consumers shouldn't have to fear criminal charges if they want to unlock their cell phones and switch carriers," Senator Lee stated this afternoon. "Enhanced competition among wireless services is the surest way to increase consumer welfare."
"Consumers should have flexibility and choice when it comes to their wireless service and they deserve to keep and use cell phones they have already purchased," Senator Klobuchar added. "This legislation will help allow consumers to unlock their phones. I will continue to work with my colleagues to promote policies to meet the needs of consumers and boost competition." [ModMyi]
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The latest news from Congress it granted blessing on the iOS jailbreak and Android Rooting all devices; the hackers embraced this with pride. That specific amendment a few years ago to the DMCA was just temporary and since then the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has tried relentlessly to get it reinstated. This has now happened. The Library of Congress has now extended it for another three years, but with some extreme limitations: After 90 days, unlocking of new phones will be verboten and all tablet mods will still be illegal. This has major differences from the 2010 stipulation which did allow unlocking, because the Librarian decided that a recent copyright ruling means fair use rules no longer apply to a handset's OS. It also states that this exception does not apply anymore as carrier rules regarding unlocking are now more relaxed.
What do you think?
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