"It is not as though the contract is for free service plus payment for the phone in installments. Who ever said it was? Arguing with you is turning out to be a

"It is not as though the contract is for free service plus payment for the phone in installments. Who ever said it was? Arguing with you is turning out to be a colossal waste of time; every time you run into problems you gin up a straw man and attack that. This is my last contribution to this thread." You are the one who claimed the people do not own their phones while under contract. If the contract is not an installment plan or a line of credit, then what property ownership do you think the companies have on the phone? Well, I guess since it was your last contribution to the thread, you will not answer. "The administration has expressed its support for people being able to unlock their phone when its out of contract" That is not in any way related to what I said. I said that the problem is that the DMCA forbids unlocking regardless of the contract. You can enter into a contract that says nothing about unlocking, and guess what? Unlocking will still be illegal. Stop pretending that this is not a special protection for the cell carriers' business.