Unlocking your phone for other carrier use is now illegal.

[CexMashean]

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Unlocking-your-phone-is-now-against-the-law-in-the-U.S._id39136

Now that the weekend is here, unlocking your phone has become illegal. As harsh as it seems, anyone who unlocks his or her handset in the U.S. without written consent from his or her carrier, could face civil or even criminal action. At most, you could face a $2,500 fine if you unlock your handset merely to use another carrier. For example, there are nearly 2 million Apple iPhone users who have unlocked their phone, and use T-Mobile's unlimited service. If you unlock phones for profit because you're, say, a cellphone reseller, then it is a whole other ballgame and you could face a half a million dollars in fines and some prison time.

So what happened to make doing something to your own personal property against the law? The Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office no longer give cellphones an exemption under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The intent of the law was to prevent infringement of copyrights, not to specifically ban the unlocking of your new smartphone. For most people, the change won't make any difference because the majority of mobile phone users don't unlock their handset.

If your phone was unlocked prior to this weekend, don't keep staring at the door waiting for the cops to come bursting in as you are grandfathered in. Besides, no one really expects the carriers to go after their own customers anyway. Despite that, at least one attorney recommends not to unlock that new handset you just bought. Brad Shear, an attorney who is an expert on social media says, "I don't see carriers going aggressively after people, but bottom line is that I would not recommend violating this provision of the law."

The rule against unlocking phones will probably be changed in 2015, the next time it is due to be looked at. Until then, you can always buy a phone that comes unlocked. Apple, for example, sells an unlocked version of the Apple iPhone 5 starting at $649 for the 16GB model.

[Mr_Fiux]

Wow. Government against the people and favoring the corporations

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[krazy kris]

Time to go get an Obammy Phone

[roliath]

Time to go get an Obammy Phone

you fool! that's what they WANT YOU TO DO!

[Ratt]

Here you go, sign this.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7

Not sure how they can make something like this illegal, especially if you buy a phone outright with no contract, but whatever.

[Pro88LX]

lol @ it being illegal to unlock your iphone, but you can buy one unlocked from the factory....

[A+]

I'm want to do it now more than ever!

[DeddRekoning]

Here...you can always buy this unlocked phone for $1000 but if you sign your 2 years with us, you can have it for $200. I hate that shit.

[90GT50]

Yeah right. Call att or T-Mobile customer care after using any phone for a few weeks and tell them you're going overseas on vacation and need the phone unlocked and they'll usually send you the unlock code the next day. I unlocked an HTC one x Saturday, guess I'm gong to jail.

[CexMashean]

Yeah right. Call att or T-Mobile customer care after using any phone for a few weeks and tell them you're going overseas on vacation and need the phone unlocked and they'll usually send you the unlock code the next day. I unlocked an HTC one x Saturday, guess I'm gong to jail.

Unlocking with your carrier's consent is fine.