Unlocking your smartphone might land you in Jail after Jan 26th 2013
Well they might not send out the Posse or the Texas Rangers to hunt you down just yet, but it seems that as of January 26th forward, it will be Illegal in the United States to unlock your smartphone. To unlock a phone is to remove the restrictions so that the phone will operate on any network that is able to support the device. You can and have always been able to purchase a legally unlocked iPhone, Samsung or other smartphone free from contract for an inflated price. Verizon for instance, states that their iPhone 5 is unlocked out of the box while the AT&T variety is said to be unlocked immediately after being out of contract.
Back in October of 2012, the Librarian of Congress who is responsible for determining the anti-hacking law and it’s exemptions gave a 90 grace period to unlock your phone if you wanted to. So you can still go out and buy a phone tomorrow and have the carrier unlock it or unlock it yourself if you have asked permission from your carrier as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DCMA.
via ubergizmo.com source mashable.com
