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It will be illegal ONLY to unlock a SUBSIDIZED phone BEFORE the end of the contract.
Fair enough. the company takes the cost of the phone, and makes you stay until you repaid it.
If you don't like it, then buy only UNLOCKED, CONTRACT-FREE phones!
It's more expensive, but unlocked from day one.
What about buying used unlocked/ jailbroken phones on Craigslist/ebay? Will that also be illegal after tomorrow?
You're confusing terms, "unlocking" in this case means being able to use a phone that was purchased for one carrier on a different carrier, jailbreaking/rooting is not unlocking. And as the article states, it applies to newly purchased phones.
It will be illegal ONLY to unlock a SUBSIDIZED phone BEFORE the end of the contract.
I don't think that's true. Here is the full text of the exemption:
"Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable a wireless telephone handset originally acquired from the operator of a wireless telecommunications network or retailer no later than ninety days after the effective date of this exemption to connect to a different wireless telecommunications network, if the operator of the wireless communications network to which the handset is locked has failed to unlock it within a reasonable period of time following a request by the owner of the wireless telephone handset, and when circumvention is initiated by the owner, an individual consumer, who is also the owner of the copy of the computer program in such wireless telephone handset, solely in order to connect to a different wireless telecommunications network, and such access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network."
The "ninety days after the effective date of this exemption" are now up, and there's no special exemption for off-contract phones.
A user unlocking a phone is against the anti-circumvention part of the DMCA. For user unlocking to be legal in any form, there would have to be an exemption. Since the exemption is expiring, it appears that unlocking is now illegal without permission from your mobile operator.
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