NegativeSpace Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 If you don't already know, as of January 26, 2013, it will become illegal to unlock your smart phone in the United States of America, as decided by the Librarian of Congress of The United States of America by the authority of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The DMCA is nearly as oppressive, and just as illegal, as the Patriot Act. In my opinion, these two laws were the begining of the end of personal freedom in America and no one is doing anythign serious about it. Fuck the Librarian of Congress and fuck the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. I hope every hacker, as well as every regular person who owns one, unlocks their smart phones illegally after the 26th, and posts a video, on youtube, of the act, and emails their leaders the youtube link or embedded video. I can't believe this is being allowed to stand and I would not be surprised or the least bit offended if LOC dot gov is never allowed to work again. However anyone feels about guns, this is a good example of why it is so incredibly important that we never allow our right to own them be taken from us. Your liberty with things as personal as your cell phones and private emails are being taken every day. Pretty soon it will be your home, your children, your life, or the life of someone who leads your community. That's all I'm able to say about it for now. "No man has the right to tell another what to do" "Fuck the First Amendment. My speech was free the day that my soul descended" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garda Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Locked phones is the worst! Something I find amusing is that almost every provider locks their phones. So it makes no net difference anyway. They must all think that they're horrible and that they need to restrict their user's freedoms. IMO it's not all that bad. The best phones at the moment are Google's nexus phones. It always comes out cheaper to buy one of those and get a cheaper non-contract service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sitwon Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Unlocking phones isn't as significant of an issue as jailbreaking, IMHO. First of all, pretty much the ONLY way you get a locked phone is if you buy your phone at a subsidized rate from the carrier or get it second-hand from someone who did. If you buy your phone direct from the Manufacturer and pay full price than it usually comes unlocked already. Second, most carriers will unlock your phone (sometimes for free, otherwise for a small fee) if you tell them you're going to be traveling outside of the country. It sucks having to pay that fee, but the subsidized price + the fee is still cheaper than buying the phone at full price (of course, you're still going to end up paying more over the long run because you're locked into a contract when you buy a subsidized phone). Third, there is virtually no mobility in the US market anyways. Unlike in Europe where you often have half a dozen carriers to choose from, in the USA you are basically limited to AT&T and T-Mobile. Those are the only two carriers operating GSM networks. There are a handful of MVNOs, but several of them don't allow you to bring your own device anyways.So I'm not really bawling my eyes out over no unlocking. As long as I can jailbreak my phone I can buy a unlocked phone direct or get one in Europe. But even still, that only matters if you're using AT&T or T-Mobile. For users of Sprint, Verizon or their MVNOs it doesn't matter if your phone is locked or not, you can't switch networks anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almost.infamous Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Second, most carriers will unlock your phone (sometimes for free, otherwise for a small fee) if you tell them you're going to be traveling outside of the country. It sucks having to pay that fee, but the subsidized price + the fee is still cheaper than buying the phone at full price (of course, you're still going to end up paying more over the long run because you're locked into a contract when you buy a subsidized phone). Verizon unlocked my phone for free last time I traveled abroad. Usually if you call customer support they will walk you through it and give you the unlock codes for free. That could all change now though. We will just have to wait and see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NegativeSpace Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 I'm not so much concerned with the consequences and practical applications as i am with the slippery slope that we are sliding down. In my opinion it's actually a very bad thing that this remains legal for a network operator to do the same fucking thing that is a crime for any individual. The details are important if you want to unlock your own phone but the details are insignificant in the face of having your freedom taken bit by bit by these laws. If there were a huge invasion by military power in the United States the population would easily overpower even the United States Military, or the military of any other country, and the only reason that is true is because of our current rights. The more they are taken, the less and less will be our ability to stand up to any oppressive force. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDale Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 This is actually pretty bad news for US citizens. In the UK we have some called 38Degree's which is a citizen based campaign group, that works to overturn by shear majority of numbers laws and changes to things in the UK which work against the interest of the citizen. Perhaps those in the US need something similar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radau Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Well the petition that got to the white house is supported by them unlike many of the other petitions that reached it, so there may be a shot at eliminating this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NegativeSpace Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 Well the petition that got to the white house is supported by them unlike many of the other petitions that reached it, so there may be a shot at eliminating this. I hope the White House takes action but considering the way things are going with the rest of the government right now I don't think it's very likely that it will get the attention that it deserves. At least it's getting attention from the population though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbass Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 (edited) mm kay dont use cell phones cell phones are bad. K They are working on a fix. It sets a bad precident about how we do what we do to learn about Technologies. They are motivated by big business. The carriers love this the hardware manufacturer hate this. They are trying to keep us from figuring things out like wps and wep. I think it said something about trafficing of cell phones. Homeland security. Does this stop me from using audacity to copy audio from youtube. I have a circuit board I hook to my pc to try and break laundry cards. Does this stop me from copying the gate remote code for my neighbors remote. Too stupid to put a rolling code which could probably be broken. What is to stop me from getting a list of phone numbers from my neighbors Cable companies use these for wpa 7 digit code to crack with the 3 digit area code. A 7 number table with the area code. When a security problem happens the govt will change their tune about cell phones. I think they will change it back. In fact the govt is trying to fix this. I will post the link. I am as pissed as you are I have no credit all I can get is a shitty pre paid phone. . As long as you dont have a contract it is fine. Edited March 9, 2013 by badbass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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