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Comment by celestialcheese | Hacker News Reader

In the US, at least, unlocking devices is legal as of 2015(?) through DMCA exemptions, which has been huge for recyclers and refurbishers.

Still couldn't get game console unlocking through, but at least phones / tablets / other devices that are locked can be unlocked and resold.

https://resource-recycling.com/e-scrap/2018/11/01/digital-de...

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The DMCA exception only means that the manufacturer can't sue you for unlocking a device they meant to be unlockable. So, of you find a way to do it, it is not a crime to hack a device you own.

Right to repair laws are (would be) a whole different beast, it would mean the manufacturer would have to sell the devices unlocked or provide the unlock method themselves.

In other words, DMCA exception removes a legal hurdle for repeatability, but Right to Repair legislation would remove the technical hurdles (and some other legal hurdles).

Whoa there, that's stretching 'right to repair' particularly because everyone has a different opinion about what it should affect and how far it should extend. For example, Louis Rossmann's right to repair direct ballot initiative only focuses on repairing the hardware since that has a much higher chance of actually passing with support from both parties in congress, and doesn't actually jeopardize the fabric of entire markets like the game console market.

It's meaningless if hackers can't bypass the security, which is true more and more as the companies get better with their security. What we need is bootloader unlocking provided by the manufacturers.

How was it that the US version of the Note 9 (with a Qualcomm SoC) had a locked bootloader while the EU version (with an Exynos SoC) had an unlocked one? Is that still the case?

These exemptions have to be renewed every 3 years. The 2018 exemptions for "jailbreaking" phones and tablets are still in force, but they will expire if not renewed.

There's work happening to make these permanent. [1] Until that happens, there are tireless volunteers and organizations lobbying for these exemptions every 3 years.

This was changed in the last cycle or so so if there aren't people challenging petitions they get semi-automatic renewals. Honestly, for unlocking bootloaders (note I initially wrote this comment in the mental context of carrier unlocks and then immediately went and edited it as I realized) we probably never needed the exemptions anyway, as there is a standing exempting for interop (which still does most of the work: the argument for the extra exemption is to provide one last step for the end-user as in 2009 it wasn't clear they could run the result, but currently everyone things they should be).

Isn't the article you linked referring to carrier unlocking? Because there are indeed laws regulating that (i.e., stating that after 2 years from the purchase all phones must be unlockable, or stuff like that), but in that case it's just a matter of having the modem run on all carriers IIRC.

There are loopholes.

I have a stack of smartphones I bought for 15$ but cannot legally unlock because I haven't paid simple mobile for a year of service on each. They're still fun and useful but not fully.

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