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White House Petition Lobbies to Make Cell Phone Unlocking Legal

Early scan of the comments left me happy: didn't see anybody coming out to defend poor old ATT's right to limit what we can do with things we pay for.
Signed it, happily.
 
lk400 said:
Buy an unlocked one in the other country?

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In other countries you can get a 64gb iphone 5 for free on a 2 year contract, with reasonable and affordable monthly rates. You pay a lot if you exit early, but you can unlock the phone at any time with a simple phone call. You are contractually bound to make the monthly payments, even if you lose the phone, sell it, use it on a different carrier etc. The telco gets their revenue stream (or a lump sum if you break contract), and your liberties aren't squashed. I don't see how simply unlocking the phone can (justifiably) affect cost.

Im not a US resident, so it doesnt affect me, but it is an interesting case study of how powerful the big US companies are.
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I am an American resident / citizen, and what I've bolded of your post is IMHO the undeniable fact of what this country actually has become and is… ruled by corporations (the big get bigger) and their lobbyists (who the gov't actually report to). The "people" are just fodder.

I say this as a believer of free market society, where companies should have freedoms, but to manipulate markets should be regulated, so that the "people's" rights and freedoms have first voice.
 
i.mac said:
I disagree.

Politics out of this forum?

I could, for example, presume you to be a tea party zealot, but I could be wrong...
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no politics, i lived in few countries other than USA, it is my phone, I can do whatever I want with it. I have paid $650 for unlocked phone, I have paid $199 for 2 year contract phone, i have done both ways!!!
 
dusk007 said:
I don't get why need it to be illegal. They could just make the contract exit so expensive that it isn't worth it. You gradually pay off the phone and if you exit in the first few month you pay extra or hand the hardware back.

It is done already they don't need to criminalize anything. In any case I doubt the ban would deter anyone anyway. In some european contracts it is said to be illegal and nobody cares. If it is possible, people end up doing it.
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No, they can't. Right now, if you want to get out at any point in the contract, they have to let you out with a prorated amount. In other words, if you've been on contract for a year, you'd only pay half of the amount left on your subsidy. They used to keep it jacked up until very near the end of the contract. The FCC or the FTC stepped in and said, no, you can't. Sen. Klobuchar had something to do with that, I think.
 
dusk007 said:
I don't get why need it to be illegal. They could just make the contract exit so expensive that it isn't worth it. You gradually pay off the phone and if you exit in the first few month you pay extra or hand the hardware back.

It is done already they don't need to criminalize anything. In any case I doubt the ban would deter anyone anyway. In some european contracts it is said to be illegal and nobody cares. If it is possible, people end up doing it.
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Verizon and AT&T did that

they were both being sued and losing

now they pro rate exiting the contract
 
Buy a full priced phone that is unlocked...most people in the states don't realize their phones are subsidized by their service contract.
 
iMikeT said:
As much as I would like to think this may be a glimmer of hope, this will probably make no difference because we have a government owned by these very corporations and the politicians in office are spineless to do anything about it.
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This is what happens when corporations regulate the government instead of the government regulating the corporations.
 
leon44 said:
I'll never understand America and its 'freedom'
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Me either ... As a Canadian we often shake our head at disbelief at some of the things coming out of American (gun control debate, cell phone locking laws, etc.)

The concept of "freedom" in the United States has been perverted to some extent. Instead of allowing the government to serve the people, it has begun to serve the corporations (DMCA, this new law, etc.)

It maybe too late now, but if Americans have trusted their government a bit more and provided their government with proper regulatory powers, it may have actually been able to keep the corporations at bay.

But I fear it is too late now... the corporations of America have their tentacles so deep in Washington that it isn't letting go anytime soon.




With the way things are going down south (economy, new laws, etc.), I wonder if Canada will need its own version of the Minutemen (Red Coats/Loyalists?) to protect our southern border from waves of Americans seeking refuge in the True North Strong and Free 😉
 
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coolspot18 said:
It maybe too late now, but if Americans have trusted their government a bit more and provided their government with proper regulatory powers, it may have actually been able to keep the corporations at bay.
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Growing up in Europe, I initially believed this to be the fulcrum of the argument for why Americans were X, Y, Z. However, after spending 10 years in US, I am now leaning heavily towards other points now. For sake of brevity I will exclude them from this post. I will say, that today the US Government consists of pro-corporate players who essentially have (legally) opened the social coffers to private profit-making entities. The best customer in the world is the US Tax Payer, because you only have convince 538 Congressmen/women that you deserve a share of the Trillion dollar pie... Goodnight, sleep tight 😉
 
Unlocking cell phones

After reading through twenty or so posts, I thought I would not read the reason for the law in the bigger picture.

People from the Middle East come here, or live here, with relatives back in their previous country; buy vast numbers of cell phones to mail back east.

Unlocked phones are a desirable component of "road side bombs"

Don't think so? Read, read, read!......the info is there if you look for It...
......hmmmmmm........

No other posts? Amazing!
 
Fatalbert said:
Haha, so true. American elementary school teaches you to worship the Founding Fathers and protect the right to bear all weapons of any kind. I know because I've been there.
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The founding fathers had enough foresight to put in a provision that allows people to protect themselves or fight back against tyranny.

Since we're on the subject of tyranny, do you know who was against allowing citizens to bear arms? Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong (amount other facists/dictators) were all against private gun ownership.

Hitler convinced the Germans to outlaw guns before rounding up the Jews and putting them into the ghettos and then finally shipping them off to the death camps. Stalin slaughtered millions of Russians after guns were outlawed.

The 2nd Amendment was not intended for people to have guns to go hunting or shooting paper targets. It's so that the people are not defenseless against their government.

It's much easier to subdue unarmed people.
 
pure3d2 said:
The founding fathers had enough foresight to put in a provision that allows people to protect themselves or fight back against tyranny.

Since we're on the subject of tyranny, do you know who was against allowing citizens to bear arms? Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong (amount other facists/dictators) were all against private gun ownership.

Hitler convinced the Germans to outlaw guns before rounding up the Jews and putting them into the ghettos and then finally shipping them off to the death camps. Stalin slaughtered millions of Russians after guns were outlawed.

The 2nd Amendment was not intended for people to have guns to go hunting or shooting paper targets. It's so that the people are not defenseless against their government.

It's much easier to subdue unarmed people.
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It's easy to subdue armed people, too. Tanks, planes, boats, missiles.

You know who is against private gun ownership? Many European politicians today. Guns are outlawed. I don't see any mass murders, either by the government or by whackos with guns. Your logic is fragmented. You might as well have just said that not giving all citizens infinite money is bad because Hitler didn't do it! Or people with two feet are evil because Stalin had two feet. Learn the difference between IF and IFF; it's something that Americans lack knowledge in, so you'd be ahead.
 
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coolspot18 said:
It maybe too late now, but if Americans have trusted their government a bit more and provided their government with proper regulatory powers, it may have actually been able to keep the corporations at bay.
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A great point. It is about trust.

It is in the gun debate too. Ironically if they trusted other Americans there wouldn't be so many guns out there, but now that they're are so many guns, its harder to trust people, and so people want more to protect themselves.

coolspot18 said:
With the way things are going down south (economy, new laws, etc.), I wonder if Canada will need its own version of the Minutemen (Red Coats/Loyalists?) to protect our southern border from waves of Americans seeking refuge in the True North Strong and Free 😉
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Probably not. America is becoming awash in energy, which should drive the economy for years to come. And when there's money about, American's forget all their problems and Canada will look like a drag.
 
linuxcooldude said:
Now I understand why we won our freedom from the british.
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Freedom is a powerful word but its not really accurate, what freedom do you have today that someone living in Britain doesn't other than your need to own a gun to protect yourself from the armed mass general public
 
Codyak said:
I already went around AT&T to get my phone unlocked for overseas, but signed this anyway. The fact an 83 year old Reagan appointee was the final say in this blows my mind, half the people over 65 I know barely understand how to turn a phone on or off.
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the phone companies probably offered him an extra breath on his life
 
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