Senator Working on Bill To Make Phone Unlocking Legal Again

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bucknutty

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Why the hell would we need congress to pass a bill about what we can or can’t do with our private, rented or leased property in the first place? Furthermore why the hell would the punishment for using the device incorrectly be half a million dollars or 5 years in prison? I know a guy at a used car lot that got arrested and charged with like 15 counts of fraud for turning back the odometers on cars. His fines were about equivalent to the value of all the cars he sold fraudulently. But I guess a phone is a much bigger purchase, and much more of a safety concern than a car, so the $500,000 sound fair……Stupid.
 

pedro_mann

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I'm just hoping this passes so that the people that contribute to xda-developers.com don't become "criminals" over night. It is a bit ridiculous. With passage of this legislation, their work would be protected under this clause. Liability would then be shifted to the individual consumer to make sure the tools are used properly.
 

pedro_mann

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[citation][nom]bucknutty[/nom]Why the hell would we need congress to pass a bill about what we can or can’t do with our private, rented or leased property in the first place? Furthermore why the hell would the punishment for using the device incorrectly be half a million dollars or 5 years in prison? I know a guy at a used car lot that got arrested and charged with like 15 counts of fraud for turning back the odometers on cars. His fines were about equivalent to the value of all the cars he sold fraudulently. But I guess a phone is a much bigger purchase, and much more of a safety concern than a car, so the $500,000 sound fair……Stupid.[/citation]

I sort of agree with your point, but this is a terrible example to illustrate it. If I as a consumer was defrauded by a used car salesman, he probably deserves some sort of punishment. Likewise, to have a punishment that is unsuitable for the crime is also ridiculous. If I simply want to unlock my device so I can get updates to an OS that is given out for free, but the carriers are too lazy to do so, then we should be able to unlock the device, regardless of payment or contract status. Also, to set the fine at $500,000 for that is a bit ridiculous. It should be no more than twice the value of the contract in my opinion. So somewhere around $2,400 would be a fitting punishment.

I do think that this new legislation is actually a good idea, but would not be necessary if our copyright system/DMCA wasn't as badly broken as it is.

A good idea would be to vote with your dollars and simply buy a Nexus branded device that actually gets software support, doesn't come preloaded with junk apps that can't be removed, you can actually use NFC if it is included on your device, unlike verizon's effort to block that service etc. The only reason left after that is the switching carriers issue. That one is why we need this legislation.
 
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Naturally i want to say that the Supreme Court can just struck down the 5year and .5 million fine as unconstitutional, but then again after citizen united, i just don't see the pro-business judges agreeing that its cruel and unusual punishment.
 

spectrewind

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[citation][nom]Rick_Criswell[/nom]A bill with merits. But will the idiots in congress pass it? Probably not they receive too much money from the big corps.[/citation]

Unfortunately, exactly correct. Crony capitalism is the 'thud' hitting and making the USA move fwd today.
 
[citation][nom]spectrewind[/nom]Unfortunately, exactly correct. Crony capitalism is the 'thud' hitting and making the USA move fwd today.[/citation]

not 100% crony capitalism. you have to remember, however fraudulent the campaign, people voted these guys into office. honestly if you can't be bothered to check a senator or house member's past voting record, or you're too stupid to know that everyone should get their news from more than one source, you shouldn't be voting... but alas, with the funding cuts we won't have much of an education system to teach people that...
 

mforce2

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Too bad, here in Romania I can do whatever the hell I want with a phone, even if the contract period hasn't expired.
In fact I unlocked my current phone was unlocked for like 5$ and use it on another network even though the guy I bought it from still has 1 year left of his contract. Don't even know if he pays it but hey, not my problem.
The situation in the US is getting uglier every day, I woudn't like it there. It seems the big corporations are actually running the country and people seem more like sheep.
I like my freedoms, I like to be able to unlock my cell phone or yes, even download stuff from piratebay if I want to :)
 

downhill911

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[citation][nom]mforce2[/nom]Too bad, here in Romania I can do whatever the hell I want with a phone, even if the contract period hasn't expired. In fact I unlocked my current phone was unlocked for like 5$ and use it on another network even though the guy I bought it from still has 1 year left of his contract. Don't even know if he pays it but hey, not my problem. The situation in the US is getting uglier every day, I woudn't like it there. It seems the big corporations are actually running the country and people seem more like sheep. I like my freedoms, I like to be able to unlock my cell phone or yes, even download stuff from piratebay if I want to[/citation]

US's days of excess which promoted arrogance and greed and indeed turning against them.
 

southernshark

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[citation][nom]vmem[/nom]not 100% crony capitalism. you have to remember, however fraudulent the campaign, people voted these guys into office. honestly if you can't be bothered to check a senator or house member's past voting record, or you're too stupid to know that everyone should get their news from more than one source, you shouldn't be voting... but alas, with the funding cuts we won't have much of an education system to teach people that...[/citation]


Oh well... you know most of the richest people in US history never finished college. In fact the top 3 richest men in US History never went to highchool. The more educated we have become, the poorer we have become. There is a strong connection between being poor and spending many years of your life in school.....

Now back to the topic..... I disagree about it not being 100 percent crony capitalism, because it clearly is. We had the same sort of laws passed both by republicans and democrats (although at least the GOP didn't lie about it up front).
 

targetdrone

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[citation][nom]pedro_mann[/nom]I .A good idea would be to vote with your dollars and simply buy a Nexus branded device.[/citation]


I would buy a Nexus device IF it supposed LTE and had a microSD slot. The lack of the two are a deal breaker.
 

scook9

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[citation][nom]pedro_mann[/nom]I sort of agree with your point, but this is a terrible example to illustrate it. If I as a consumer was defrauded by a used car salesman, he probably deserves some sort of punishment. Likewise, to have a punishment that is unsuitable for the crime is also ridiculous. If I simply want to unlock my device so I can get updates to an OS that is given out for free, but the carriers are too lazy to do so, then we should be able to unlock the device, regardless of payment or contract status. Also, to set the fine at $500,000 for that is a bit ridiculous. It should be no more than twice the value of the contract in my opinion. So somewhere around $2,400 would be a fitting punishment.I do think that this new legislation is actually a good idea, but would not be necessary if our copyright system/DMCA wasn't as badly broken as it is.A good idea would be to vote with your dollars and simply buy a Nexus branded device that actually gets software support, doesn't come preloaded with junk apps that can't be removed, you can actually use NFC if it is included on your device, unlike verizon's effort to block that service etc. The only reason left after that is the switching carriers issue. That one is why we need this legislation.[/citation]
A nexus device can still be sold with a locked sim slot - which is what this bill addresses. Pretty much any nexus sold through a carrier and subsidized is sim locked.

I agree though, bootloader locking should also be made illegal. The only reason carriers like it is because it makes it harder for us to get around their ridiculous fees and BS pricing they shove down our throats.
 

bucknutty

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I guess my point is we already have a system in place for dealing with misuse of rented, leased or subsidized property, and we have a system to deal with breach of contract. It’s called civil court.
Why should the feds get involved and make this an offense that deserves jail time? Why should tax dollars be wasted on prosecuting and incarcerating someone who breaks a contract? If they commit fraud they should be charged with fraud. If the breach of contract damages the company the contract is with they should sue for damages.
My point of the guy with the used cars is he got off pretty easy for something in my mind is a much much worse offense than unlocking a phone. I guess if you are a huge organization with tons of lobbying dollars you can get any law you want put in place, even it is completely unfair. People charged with armed robbery or aggravated assault can get off with less of a punishment than 5 years and half a million.
 

Fulgurant

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[citation][nom]bucknutty[/nom]I guess my point is we already have a system in place for dealing with misuse of rented, leased or subsidized property, and we have a system to deal with breach of contract. It’s called civil court. Why should the feds get involved and make this an offense that deserves jail time? Why should tax dollars be wasted on prosecuting and incarcerating someone who breaks a contract? If they commit fraud they should be charged with fraud. [/citation]

Yes, exactly. The only reason Congress is even involved in this sort of thing is that the Federal Government has been abusing the living bleep out of the Interstate Commerce clause for decades -- and so now we're reliant on Congress periodically to renew or weigh in on the terms of an absolutely immense and byzantine collection of laws and regulations, of which many have no obvious purpose because they're already (or should already be) covered by broader statutes.

Half the Congress probably isn't even aware of matters like this one until they're thrust into the public eye.

We're talking about an effing phone contract. If there's a dispute between the two parties to that contract, then they can handle the matter civilly. If the phone carrier/vendor feels its property was stolen, then they can report the crime to the police, just as you would if someone walked into a Verizon store and stole a phone from the shelf. No one would consider it remotely appropriate to have Congress dictate the local laws regarding shoplifting, and yet here we are, watching Congress dictate an absurd minimum penalty for what amounts to (at the very worst) the theft of an item worth less than a thousand dollars.
 
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