Back in October of 2012, the Librarian of Congress decided to remove cellphone unlocking from the exemptions of the DMCA. This sparked much outrage and discussion in the cellphone community prompting a petition to be started on the White House website. The stipulation of the petition was that it needed to reach over 100,000 signatures in a 30-day period which would prompt the White House to respond directly to the petition.
Amazingly, the petition garnered well over the necessary amount, 114,000+ and recently we got our response. The response is a good one for people who believe in consumer choice and competition. The White House has made a statement that they agree that cellphone unlocking should remain legal.
How they plan on going about this issue is yet to be determined, but the response ensures that action will be taken.
The Obama Administration would support a range of approaches to addressing this issue, including narrow legislative fixes in the telecommunications space that make it clear: neither criminal law nor technological locks should prevent consumers from switching carriers when they are no longer bound by a service agreement or other obligation.
If you would like to read the response in it’s entirety, you can take a look at the petition here.
