On Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:05:34 -0500, Alex Bell wrote:

wrote:

As of Saturday, it became illegal to unlock your cell phone.

I believe that it was the library of congress, not the whitehouse or the
president or the USPTO, that came down with that ruling.

Because circumventing the software inside your phone that locks it to a
specific carrier falls under copyright legislation, and the library of
congress can apparently make some broad rulings about when copyright
rules apply - and when they don't.

There is also the principle of first sale at work here. You *own* the
book you bought and can sell it and your license to its copyright at
any time, to anyone. You can also scribble in it at any time.

I'm probably one of the biggest proponents of intellectual property
there is, but this is a simple give away to big business.

This is mostly aimed at literally crushing the used phone market.
They want you to use your phone until the contract is out and trade
it in on a newer phone with a new contract.

New phones cost the service providers money - because they have to
subsidize the cost (to the tune of hundreds of dollars, some times up to
$650 for iPhone). I'm sure they'd rather not have to do that.

No, they rather like the situation. They *do* recover their
investment with a rather large profit. Though this has little (or
nothing) to do with the situation. The issue is unlocking phones
*AFTER* the contract is over. That is, the phone's costs, and profit,
has already been recovered.

Then they crush the old phone.

No, there are lots of used (refurbished) phones that get used in
secondary markets.

This decision dries that market up completely. In fact, this decision
makes your suggestion that the wireless companies don't like the
"subsidy" market model, ridiculous.


Interesting that Apple sells their iPhones unlocked here in Canada.

Sure, but that has nothing to do with the price of china in cuba.

When you've been paying $60 a month on a 2-year contract and were given
a new iPhone when the contract started, of that $60, $20 went to pay for
the phone. After 2 years, you own the phone, and should be able to use
it on any network. But because it's locked to the original carrier,
they expect you'll come back to them after the contract is over and keep
using your 2-year-old phone on their network.

Exactly. However, under this ruling you wouldn't have the right to
unlock your, now paid for, phone and take it to another carrier, or
sell it to someone who would.

You obviously haven't thought this through.