It was only six months ago that the White House officially went on record saying that they thought cell phone unlocking should be legalized. The statement was issued in response to a 114,000+ signature petition, which rightfully argued that if you have paid off a device on-contract, it should belong to you, full-stop.
The Obama Administration said flat-out they agreed… which is why it’s distressing to find out that they may have been misleading us. In fact, while telling the American public that it supported laws to make cell phone unlocking legal, it appears that the Obama Administration has secretly been working against it.
Over at Slate, they have discovered a draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty in the latest Wikileaks data dump, which would make the technology required for unlocking cell phones illegal by international law.
Slate explains:
It would ban numerous other technologies that have beneficial uses. In particular, the legislation would ensure that jailbreaking—which is installing a different operating system on your phone, tablet, or e-reader—is illegal. It’s already on precarious ground in the United States, but under TPP it would be illegal in all circumstances.
One important thing to note here is that this treaty is still being negotiated, and the Obama Administration may not be aware that it is acting inconsistently: Washington has a dim understanding of how technology works at the best of times (look at the HealthCare.gov debacle), and it’s possible that this is an example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
Either way, though, if you believe that your iPhone should belong to you when you’ve paid off your contract, now is the time to speak up. If this law goes into effect, carriers are going to own your smartphones and tablets for the rest of time.
Source: Slate
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
9 responses to “The Obama Administration Has Been Secretly Moving To Make iPhone Unlocking Illegal”
The election’s over. No need to be anything but honest now.
Politicians are liars, they are paid by Corporations to do their will.
It’s the same the world over, if they can’t buy the politicians they use their indiscretions to blackmail them.
Not to defend anyone but jailbreaking is different from unlocking. I think people should be able to do whatever they wish with their phones as long as it doesn’t involve inflicting harm on others but you muddle the issue by conflating the two. Bad journalist. Bad, bad!
Why, oh why, would a Progressive (the cult of lies and control) want people NOT jailbreak their iPhones?
Couple this with NSA, ineptitude of technology implementation (ahem, Healthcare.gov) causing even more control of individuals (single payer, anyone?),and you get what I put earlier. They want to control you.
“Mr. Thequick, what were you doing in that area of town on July 23, 2013? It seems that your iphone was there, and you made three calls “on the way home.” That area of town is known not to have reputable people. Perhaps you would not want your wife or friends at church to hear about this. Maybe, if you stop talking badly about this administration, it is your choice, after all, and we can forget all about this.”
I know, tin foil hat stuff. But honestly, where does one get tin foil? I can only find the aluminum foil. Anyhow… look at what happened to Jack Welch last year when he said the unemployment numbers being published were wrong. He was vilified. Now, today, we find out he was correct.
If you read the Slate article it points out that the legislation would make unlocking AND jailbreaking illegal.
Yes, and remember: “You can keep your medical insurance plan, guaranteed!” Except now you can’t. The Obama administration seems to have no problem with promising things, then later completely doing the opposite. Of course your phone should belong to you after you’ve paid it off, and you should be free to do anything you want with it. What advantage would there be to the government to make unlocking illegal?
Yes, Yes, It the Obama Administration. Remember “No, New Taxes” followed by an immediate Tax increase, or the bazillions of other promises that were never kept? Why is it all ways Obama rather than politicians in general?
W T F ???
This is NOT George Bush or Dick… These are democrats !!! If I wanted or voted for this kind of criminal and ant-population behavior, I’d just move to texas…. What the fu** is wrong with you people ??
The updated information is…..It is now legal to get our phones unlocked from third party unlocking services in U.S. Recently, I unlocked my mobile .I had to travel outside my country and I had to unlock it very quickly. My network provider prolonged the unlock process…and luckily the amendment of unlocking phone made legal saved my time. I used the service from Superunlockcodes.com and removed the network lock very easily. They unlocked my phone within few hours….