3 ms·

Note if you are in the USA, this is technically illegal under DMCA, but like speeding, a great many people still do it.

• dogma1138 11y ago
  Yeah those services are "grey" at best in many other places in the world also but are often used, I don't think anyone is going be prosecuted for violating the DMCA for unlocking a phone unless you are running the unlocking service yourself. That said it is a risk that some people might not want to take, but considering that people violate the DMCA by far more often by pirating various media I don't think most people would care, or even know that it's forbidden.
• yerich 11y ago
  As of 2014, it is explicitly legal to unlock a phone: "Circumvention of a technological measure that restricts wireless telephone handsets or other wireless devices from connecting to a wireless telecommunications network ... may be initiated by the owner of any such handset or other device ... solely in order to enable such owner or a family member of such owner to connect to a wireless telecommunications network" - Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, 2014 (https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1123/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1123...)
  • ck2 11y ago
    key word there is "owner" do you "own" a (heavily) subsidized phone distributed by a specific carrier? yes some people will argue, if you paid for it in a store it is "owned" guess it all comes down to when corporations start asking the government to jail people over this