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Monday, January 28, 2013

The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone

This is now the law of the land:
ADVISORY 
BY DECREE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS 
IT SHALL HENCEFORCE BE ORDERED THAT AMERICANS SHALL NOT UNLOCK THEIR OWN SMARTPHONES. 
PENALTY: In some situations, first time offenders may be fined up to $500,000, imprisoned for five years, or both. For repeat offenders, the maximum penalty increases to a fine of $1,000,000, imprisonment for up to ten years, or both.*

That's right, starting this weekend it is illegal to unlock new phones to make them available on other carriers.

I have deep sympathy for any individual who happens to get jail time for this offense. I am sure that other offenders would not take kindly to smartphone un-lockers.

But seriously: It's embarrassing and unacceptable that we are at the mercy of prosecutorial and judicial discretion** to avoid the implementation of draconian laws that could implicate average Americans in a crime subject to up to a $500,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

What the heck does that even mean? I guess I am too dumb to unlock my smartphone. LOL

Anonymous said...

4:08
If you buy a phone from lets say Verizon..and decide to switch to another carried there were places you could take your phone so they could unlock it so it could be used on a different carried like sprint or at&t. Looks like once you buy the phone you are stuck with the carrier you bought it from unless you want to buy another phone. Seems stupid to me. If I buy something I should be able to use it with which ever provider I want to.

Anonymous said...

What about the ones that come unlocked

Anonymous said...

Sounds about like the penalty for removing the tag on a mattress or pillow. I don't get it when you've purchased the phone its yours now they are saying although you own it you cannot do with it as you please? Bow sown you sheeple!

Anonymous said...

Its called Jail Breaking on the net. Look it up.

Anonymous said...

just more idiots that don't know their nose from a hole in the ground

Daddio said...

How does the librarian of congress make laws?

I don't remember seeing anything about that in the Constitution ....

Anonymous said...

This is easy to fix....Buy a new phone thru the new carrier. What's the big deal?

Bullard Construction said...

Daddio, it's not in the Constitution, but there's plenty in there that prevents this. The bottom line here is, who "owns" the phone? If you bought the $600 phone outright and are on a monthly plan that can get cancelled at any time by you, then YOU own the phone, and no one can tell you how to use it.
If you have gotten the phone via a 2 year plan, then you are making monthly payments for 2 years before you own the phone. Hence the early termination fees. After you pay those, again, you own the phone.
Amendments 9, 10, 4, and 14 all apply here.

Daddio said...

I never buy into those 2 year contracts anymore.

Once I ran the numbers, it appeared that folks who do that pay 2-3 times as much for their phones than if they bought them outright.