Cell Phone Owners Allowed To Break Software Locks

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_hi_te/digital_copyright' target='_blank'>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_hi_te/digital_copyright</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday... All told, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington approved six exemptions, the most his Copyright Office has ever granted. For the first time, the office exempted groups of users. The new rules will take effect Monday and expire in three years. In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren't able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones' underlying programs."</i><br /><br />I doubt the carriers themselves will change their method of unlocking handsets for users but I am curious as to how long it will take before we start seeing perfectly legal software on store shelves that will let users unlock their devices. :D

[Mike Temporale]

That would be great! Although, I think the best solution would be for carriers to stop locking the device all together. 8)

[Mark Larson]

Aren't they talking about application locks, rather than carrier locks?

Also, I do believe the practice of unlocking your GSM handset is fully legal; there are many services that do exactly that without the permission of the carrier.

I hope this means that T-Mobile doesn't lock the Java on their phones anymore so that we can use Gmaps and Opera.

[Rocco Augusto]

nope, until now sim unlocking of the handset was illegal by anyone except the carrier or manufacture, at least in the US. we were constantly warned about what we were allowed to tell customers as far as unlocking handsets was concerned and in almost all cases we were told to refer them to customer service and nothing more.