Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal in the U.S.

Advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) questions whether the DMCA has the right to determine who can unlock a phone. In an email to TechNewsDaily, EFF attorney Mitch Stoltz said, “Arguably, locking phone users into one carrier is not at all what the DMCA was meant to do. It’s up to the courts to decide.”

If you do buy a new phone and want to unlock it before the deadline, you must first ask your carrier if the company will unlock your phone for you. The DMCA only permits you to unlock your phone yourself once you’ve asked your carrier first.

(Note that unlocking is different from “jailbreaking,” which opens the phone up for running additional software and remains legal for smartphones.)

Christopher S. Reed from the U.S. Copyright Office noted in an email to TechNewsDaily that “only a consumer, who is also the owner of the copy of software on the handset under the law, may unlock the handset.”

But come Saturday, you’ll have to break the law to unlock your phone. If you want to get in under the gun, you can search the Internet for the code to enter to unlock the phone or find a tool that will help you accomplish the task.

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