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iPhone 5 phone after Jan. unlock is illegal?

I

itzmemike

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 26, 2013
16
0
Hello,
I heard rumors online that iphone or any phone purchased after jan 26th 2013. So i was just curious if this is true then, how is apple.com today still selling factory unlocked device and my 2nd question is if the phone is purchased before jan 26th 2013 but unlocked after, will that be ok?
 
itzmemike said:
Hello,
I heard rumors online that iphone or any phone purchased after jan 26th 2013. So i was just curious if this is true then, how is apple.com today still selling factory unlocked device and my 2nd question is if the phone is purchased before jan 26th 2013 but unlocked after, will that be ok?
Click to expand...

Hahaha.

It's illegal to unlock a device that is on a contract with a carrier.
 
itzmemike said:
oh so if you purchase the phone from apple, any store without carrier its ok?
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Yes, the law states that it would be illegal to unlock the phone without the carrier's permission. Which means phones purchased before would be in the clear, as well as factory unlocked phones which have nothing to do with this law. And your carrier should in theory allow you to unlock after a while too.
 
I got kicked out of the Apple Store during the summer of 2007 because I tried to purchase an iPhone with cash and I'm a Canadian, they escorted me out of the store and everything because it is illegal to unlock any iPhone in the United States of America. I bought one an hour later from AT&T and the lady there was nice and told me some sites I could go to for unlocking it to work in Canada.. I don't think she was suppose to do that but AT&T was way more helpful about it then Apple.

Apple kicked me out, AT&T told me how to unlock it.. go figure

In Canada all of the "jailbreak" laws state that if you are in full ownership of the device no matter what it is, you are allowed to do as you please for your own personal or free use, this means you are allowed to jailbreak as long as it's for free/personal use (no offering it as a business strategy or doing it someone else's phone without them knowing).

HOWEVER this does not cover in contract phones, if you are in a contract then that phone is in full ownership of your provider, if you are one day before your contract is up and they want to fall back and take all of those phones back they have that power because you do not own it until your contract is up so if you jailbreak an "in contract" phone despite country then you are jailbreaking that carriers iPhone and there for breaking the law by unknowingly jailbreaking that carriers phone without their permission.

Most companies don't care at all, when I got back to Canada, Rogers gave me their "iPhone" plan which was just a data package plan they are marketing as iPhone plan because we didn't get the original 1st generation iPhone in Canada so Rogers was offering special data plans to unlocked iPhones in Canada. Now that I'm with Bell because our useless local cellular company bought out Rogers towers so I had to switch to someone else and Bell was the best solution from the get-go so using my in contract iPhone 4 they even told me how I can unlock it after my contract is up or if I buy a new phone so I can sell it to anyone else. They even offer an unlocking fee of $75 and they'll factory unlock my iPhone for me so I can sell it when I either buy a new phone or my contract is up.

You could just ask your carrier about jailbreaking and unlocking phones on your own or getting them professionally unlocked but lots of carriers really don't care, they just want the money from the phone and you can do whatever you want.

Oh and whatever you do, do NOT send a jailbroken phone back to Apple to get repaired, they get really mad at you and they won't give your phone back.
 
Question About Unlocking !

HI everyone , i have a question popped up in my mind. I'm with At&t and my iphone 5 is manufactured after 26th jan 2013. But The law said I won't be able to unlock my iphone in USA. What if i'm on vacation out of state. Am I legally purchase the iphone unlock code from ebay on my vacation out of USA ? Waiting for the reply ! Thanks
 
aplus0819 said:
HI everyone , i have a question popped up in my mind. I'm with At&t and my iphone 5 is manufactured after 26th jan 2013. But The law said I won't be able to unlock my iphone in USA. What if i'm on vacation out of state. Am I legally purchase the iphone unlock code from ebay on my vacation out of USA ? Waiting for the reply ! Thanks
Click to expand...

The law doesn't make all unlocking illegal. People should really read about it first. And AT&T said they will continue their unlock service for people who fulfill their contracts.
 
aplus0819 said:
HI everyone , i have a question popped up in my mind. I'm with At&t and my iphone 5 is manufactured after 26th jan 2013. But The law said I won't be able to unlock my iphone in USA. What if i'm on vacation out of state. Am I legally purchase the iphone unlock code from ebay on my vacation out of USA ? Waiting for the reply ! Thanks
Click to expand...

You will be fine purchasing an imei unlock for it.
 
Man people are over reacting to unlocking, just go on eBay pay for the factory unlock( 5 dollars or less) and I guarantee you the FBI won't come to your house and take your phone. Plus the factory unlock people are workers for Atnt that make extra money sending unlock ticket for your phone to apple. Just unlock your phone the way you please and screw what some small group in government says.
 
im curious to know how many people got caught by the feds by unlocking their iphones
 
Library of congress proposed an article to be accepted into law, president has not signed it, house and senate have not signed it, there is no statute attached to this ordinance. There is no governing body with powers to execute arrests based on this act. Only agency whose name is attached is DMCA, which is copyright law infringement to jail breaking(altering software.) Even DMCA going after large businesses is tough due to the fact that 99.9% of unlocking is being done thru 3rd party agencies, that have contacts in major companies customer service departments.
 
helios16v said:
Bell was the best solution from the get-go

Oh and whatever you do, do NOT send a jailbroken phone back to Apple to get repaired, they get really mad at you and they won't give your phone back.
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You thought going from Rodgers to Bell was the "best solution" lol It's like escaping one black hole and jumping right into another. Ever heard of Koodo, or was this story set in the way back machine when Koodo didn't exist?

And Apple can't take your phone if it's paid for, or in the "ownership" of a carrier. That's called theft pretty much anywhere you may live ;)
 
5kylar said:
You thought going from Rodgers to Bell was the "best solution" lol It's like escaping one black hole and jumping right into another.
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I don't fully understand what you mean, I paid $65 a month with Rogers for the basic junk, 100 minutes, 500MB of Data, caller ID, and Voice Mail because it was an iPhone and they won't let you take any other package. When our local company bought them out I either had to upgrade my plan to $80 a month because they charge more for Caller ID and Voice Mail or buy out my contract.. Long story short and I mean a LONG story and weeks of arguing with the company as well as $460 cancelation fee with only 1 year left in my contract.. I switched to Bell and have unlimited local and long distance, 6GB of Data which is now LTE data with the new towers they put up (out local companty just got 4G so LTE won't be coming for a LONG time), caller id, voicemail, tv on my phone, and all of this for $50 a month and once I was out of contract it went down to $45.. I'm going to go on a limb and say yes, it was the smarter choice to go with Bell over Rogers.

Bell also told me step by step at the customer service desk how to use Cydia to downgrade my jailbroken iPhone 4 back to iOS 5.1.1 when I was having serious battery issues and lack of service. Bell is a much better company and I wish I had gone with them in the beginning.

5kylar said:
Ever heard of Koodo, or was this story set in the way back machine when Koodo didn't exist?
Click to expand...
Koodo doesn't offer GSM service where I live they only had little LG slider phones and BlackBerries, it's only CDMA so they don't have SIM Cards and this was 2 years after the iPhone 3G was released
I am also out of contract with Bell and own my iPhone 4 now and bought outright a new Note 2 with them so I can leave any time without a hastle or any type of fee's now that everything is paid off. It's the same way Koodo works but I get LTE with a Note 2 instead of 3G on a Blackberry.

5kylar said:
And Apple can't take your phone if it's paid for, or in the "ownership" of a carrier. That's called theft pretty much anywhere you may live ;)
Click to expand...
Rogers threatened to take my phone and bill me for the 2 years of use if I did not buy out my contract after they so willingly gave me up as customer to our horrible lying greedy local cellular provider. They told me that if I do not want to switch and pay more for my current plan then I need to buy out my contract, and if I do not want to buy it out then I need to give the phone back and I will be billed for the 2 years of "rental use" for having the phone. They made it very clear that the iPhone 3G I had got from them on a 3 year contract was not my property after they threatened to take it away because I didn't want to pay more for the same plan from a company with worse coverage and slower data.

In short, if you are in a contract, the phone is not your legal property until the contract is up.
 
Last edited:
helios16v said:
Rogers threatened to take my phone and bill me for the 2 years of use if I did not buy out my contract after they so willingly gave me up as customer to our horrible lying greedy local cellular provider. They told me that if I do not want to switch and pay more for my current plan then I need to buy out my contract, and if I do not want to buy it out then I need to give the phone back and I will be billed for the 2 years of "rental use" for having the phone. They made it very clear that the iPhone 3G I had got from them on a 3 year contract was not my property after they threatened to take it away because I didn't want to pay more for the same plan from a company with worse coverage and slower data.

In short, if you are in a contract, the phone is not your legal property until the contract is up.
Click to expand...

You didn't read the last bit of my post very well. What you stated above is 100% true. I said "Apple" can't take your phone. If your on a contract they are stealing from your service provider, if it's yours they are stealing from you.

Koodo is a lot better now, though. Rodgers and bell charge twice as much for half the service nowadays :/
 
helios16v said:
I don't fully understand what you mean, I paid $65 a month with Rogers for the basic junk, 100 minutes, 500MB of Data, caller ID, and Voice Mail because it was an iPhone and they won't let you take any other package. When our local company bought them out I either had to upgrade my plan to $80 a month because they charge more for Caller ID and Voice Mail or buy out my contract.. Long story short and I mean a LONG story and weeks of arguing with the company as well as $460 cancelation fee with only 1 year left in my contract.. I switched to Bell and have unlimited local and long distance, 6GB of Data which is now LTE data with the new towers they put up (out local companty just got 4G so LTE won't be coming for a LONG time), caller id, voicemail, tv on my phone, and all of this for $50 a month and once I was out of contract it went down to $45.. I'm going to go on a limb and say yes, it was the smarter choice to go with Bell over Rogers.

<SNIP>

Rogers threatened to take my phone and bill me for the 2 years of use if I did not buy out my contract after they so willingly gave me up as customer to our horrible lying greedy local cellular provider. They told me that if I do not want to switch and pay more for my current plan then I need to buy out my contract, and if I do not want to buy it out then I need to give the phone back and I will be billed for the 2 years of "rental use" for having the phone. They made it very clear that the iPhone 3G I had got from them on a 3 year contract was not my property after they threatened to take it away because I didn't want to pay more for the same plan from a company with worse coverage and slower data.

In short, if you are in a contract, the phone is not your legal property until the contract is up.
Click to expand...
It sounds like they were changing the terms of the contract after the fact. In which case then you can cancel the contract without penalty. I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure this would be the case. It sounds like they were trying to strong arm you into staying with this other local carrier and giving them more money. In the end though you got it sorted out and moved on and are happier for it. Myself, I've never had any major issue with Rogers over the years. Bell on the other hand has been an annoyance on a few occasions when dealing with them for my home phone or satellite service.
 
With carriers such as T-Mobile and AT&T and even Verizon, once you buy a phone on a new contract and pay that first months bill, the phone is yours. They will not demand that you give it back but if you do break the contract, they will bill for the phone.

I bought a Nexus 4 on a two year contract with T-Mobile in February to get the phone for free. I paid the first months bill and then cancelled the contract. They billed me $115 for breaking the contract, I paid it and have been on T-Mobiles prepaid ever since

I bought a new 4S on AT&T in January, paid the first months bill and broke my contract. They never demanded the phone back but billed me for the phone and the months remaining on the broken contract.
 
5kylar said:
I said "Apple" can't take your phone. If your on a contract they are stealing from your service provider
Click to expand...
My mistake, I thought you meant Apple or the Cellular provider would be steeling the phone from my possession in contract. I misread your post :p
 
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