

Petition the Whitehouse to make unlocking cell phones legal - sinak
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7

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adamtj
This lacks vision. Petition to make locking cell phones illegal.

This is also misdirected. Legislators make and unmake law. Petition them.

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tptacek
So, petition to make cell phones cost 2x-3x more up front?

~~~
eli
I know what you're getting at, but the DMCA and carrier subsidies don't really
have much to do with each other. My contract with my carrier has early
termination fees and other rules that prevent the carrier from getting
screwed. This is true regardless of whether or not its legal to unlock my
phone.

~~~
tptacek
You can already buy an iPhone unlocked from Apple, can't you?

If that's what you want, why wouldn't you just do that?

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icebraining
Why are you limiting this to iPhones?

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tptacek
I'm not, at least not intentionally; I'm familiar with iPhones and not with
the market for Android phones.

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sinak
Hi everyone, I started this because I think the Librarian of Congress'
decision is really bad for consumers.

The new petitions feature requires 100,000 signatures to be considered.

Please sign, and if you can tweet it out, share it on Facebook, or email it to
a journalist, every little helps.

~~~
eli
I think this may be (literally) misplaced. The Library of Congress and the US
Copyright Office aren't really part of the Executive branch.

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artursapek
If there's any sign of degradation of the HN community, it's the rising
frequency of these pointless whitehouse.gov petitions showing up on the front
page.

~~~
justhw
And also the rising frequency of blog posts of every _minor_ change at GitHub.

~~~
artursapek
Meh, there's at least some substance there. But I agree. Too much of several
things.

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asdfologist
Has any of these petitions ever accomplished anything?

~~~
charonn0
Not to my knowledge. But then, 90% of the petitions are frivolous[1] or beyond
the power of the Executive branch[2] anyway. Serious proposals (e.g. [3])
rarely meet the "publicly visible" threshold, let alone the (now 4x higher)
response threshold.

[1]: [https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/declare-monday-
fol...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/declare-monday-following-
super-bowl-national-holiday/qPHHlyZV)

[2]: [https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/eliminate-
gerryman...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/eliminate-
gerrymandering-every-state-using-algorithm-design-congressional-
districts/5rCNbM2L)

[3]: [https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/call-revision-
or-r...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/call-revision-or-repeal-
apportionment-act-1911/Jdt0C1Yw)

~~~
eli
Uh, doesn't this petition also fall under [2]? The US Copyright Office isn't
part of the Executive branch.

~~~
charonn0
I hadn't realized the Copyright Office is under Congress (though that might
explain its dysfunction.) But you're right, this petition is outside
Presidential power to act upon.

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swdunlop
More importantly, let's petition the Whitehouse to respect petitions!

Has anything useful come out of "We The People" petitions beyond a pressure
release valve for angry mobs?

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electic
You will not get a response unless you put "Death Star" in it. So perhaps
saying something like, "Make unlocking cell phones being used on the Death
Star legal" would get a response.

Otherwise, most of these will not get far even if they get the 100k
signatures. For example, making research papers free and open (what Aaron
Swartz wanted) got the required signatures but did not get a response.

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Diddugdot
Why should they have such restrictive control over the device in the first
place?

After a successful contract completion, the device should be the end-users
100%, but it seems like the telecom's are futilely fighting to control the
balance of power by "dumbing down" the absolute potential of the devices they
release.

This is truly scary.

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constantmobile
Unlocking a phone that i own should be my right. If I want to use my phone out
of the country or on any provider after I have paid for is no different then
changing an engine in a car.

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joelberman
Here is a better approach. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience>

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snarfy
Ask them what copyright law has to do with choosing your cell phone carrier.

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sukuriant
Forgive me, but wasn't it already legal, since it was special case'd in the
DMCA?

This whole situation confuses me.

~~~
DannyBee
It was not special cased in the DMCA.

The short, generalized answer is:

The DMCA's DRM circumvention provision (the one that made it not legal to
decrypting dvd's you own, etc) has an exemption process, run by the registrar
of copyrights every 3 years.

In 2010, they exempted unlocking phones. That exemption was not renewed during
the rulemaking at the end of last year, and will expire on saturday.

See <http://www.copyright.gov/1201/>

