Why Cellphone Unlocking Could Soon Be Illegal Once Again | Hacker News Reader

Why Cellphone Unlocking Could Soon Be Illegal Once Again

wired.com

16 pointssinak12 comments

I just bought an unlocked Moto G and couldn't be happier. It's not the latest and greatest specs but it's good enough for most people. The best thing is getting out of the rat race of carrier subsidized phones. Good riddance to $90+/month cell phone bills.

> Back when the DMCA was penned, lawmakers had no idea that content—in the form of software and firmware—would find its way into almost every device we own.

It was 1997. I'm pretty sure software and firmware was already in almost every device we own. But it's probably true that lawmakers had no idea.

I don't understand why phone unlocking is covered by the DMCA. It has nothing to do with protecting content. It's also not about breaking the lock as unlocking a phone typically involves using the key.

Software is content. eBooks loaded on the phone with Kindle or iTunes DRM: content. Custom for-pay navigation crapware from carrier: "content".

The way the DMCA is written, it doesn't matter what is being "protected", it only matters that there is software that attempts to lock something down. Circumventing it, even if the locked "container" is empty, is illegal. And yes, it is breathtakingly draconian in its anti-consumer stance.

But the carrier lock on a phone does not protect any content. It prevents you from moving the phone to another network. It has nothing to do with content at all. There is no copyright involvement in any way.

Which is what's so horrible about the law. The carrier lock prevents you from altering or swapping out the code that allows negotiation with other carriers. In this case the "security" is "protecting" code defined as content.

Make no mistake, DMCA is not about copyright or redistribution, even if that's what it says on the tin. It is about making it illegal to circumvent DRM, regardless of how or to what it is applied.

Yet another reason to buy phone directly from china. No operator locks, no region locks, no crapware, no boot-loader locks, no root locks....

Just hidden spyware...

Source?

http://www.slashgear.com/star-n9500-chinese-smartphone-ships...

> knockoff smartphone available online through various Internet retailers including Amazon.com

Does not mention where phone comes from, how many phones they tested, there is no independent confirmation...

Anyway my Lenovo comes with application firewall. We are yet to see something like that from other makers :-)

Who verified the application firewall so that you can know it isn't hiding things from you (failing to report on transmissions to a hidden whitelist, for example)?

To your original point, I think it's better to buy an unlocked phone from the start. Subsidized phones will always have more strings attached.

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