Obama administration must explain cell phone unlocking ban

An online petition asking for the White House to overturn a law that prohibits unlocking cell phones has garnered over 100,000 signatures, requiring the Obama administration to offer an official response.

Even after the White House raised the threshold of signatures required to have petitions hosted on their ‘We the People’ webpage warrant a response, 103,904 people as of Thursday afternoon signed on to see what the president has to say.

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"I think it's terrific," Yale visiting fellow and former Republican Hill staffer Derek Khanna tells CNet’s Declan McCullagh. "I think it demonstrates that the American people care about free markets. They care about property rights. They don't appreciate laws that represent crony capitalism."

The petition, ‘Make Unlocking Cell Phones Legal,’ was created on January 24 in hopes of having the White House address a decision that went into effect two days later making unlocking cell phones illegal. Previously, Americans have been free to purchase mobile devices out-of-the-box and “unlock” them in order to use certain phones with an array of available coverage providers. Two days after the petition went live, though, so did a decision from the Librarian of Congress that made unlocking cell phones illegal.

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“We ask that the White House ask the Librarian of Congress to rescind this decision, and failing that, champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal,” the author of the petition pleads on the WhiteHouse.gov page. With the new law in place, “Consumers will be forced to pay exorbitant roaming fees to make calls while traveling abroad,” the petition claims. “It reduces consumer choice, and decreases the resale value of devices that consumers have paid for in full.”

Now with more than enough signatures to garner a response, a member of the Obama administration will be required to address the issue. That doesn’t mean that the White House will just be able to turn things around, though. The law that went into effect on January 26 was made by Librarian of Congress James Hadley Billington, who holds a legislative branch position and not one under Obama’s sector. Mr. Billington was tasked with signing off on the law since the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act allows the Library of Congress to regulate certain devices in regards to copyright law. And according to the document filed by the LoC, the trade association made up of wireless service provider — CTIA — alerted the Obama administration that an exemption that would legalize unlocking phones would be an unnecessary maneuver.

more here: http://rt.com/usa/obama-phone-unlocking-ban-242/

I really don't understand why they would do this, its so stupid. I think people should have a choice on what provider they want to use, its completely different at this side of the pond in the UK, we can unlock devices and use any network.

In my honest opinion, I do not see anything wrong with unlocking cell phones and using them with any carrier. I mean, you are still paying the service provider money to use it. It's not like you're getting it for free!