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Starting Today, It's Illegal to Unlock Your Cellphone [in the US]

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I'm mainly worried this will be used against those freely offering or creating the tools to unlock your phone and as a precedent for future cases.

Anticitizen One said:
Isn't oral sex technically illegal? Doesn't stop nobody
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“By 2002, 36 states had repealed all sodomy laws or had them overturned by court rulings. The remaining sodomy laws were invalidated by the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision Lawrence v. Texas.”

Better late than never I guess.
 
we'll do it anyway because the law is wrong and stupid. just like cannabis, pirating educational software, so on.

YOU BETRAYED THE LAW.
 
Freedom!

CryingEagle-Flag640.jpg
 
I wonder how this will impact small pre-paid carriers such as Cricket where the majority of the indirect dealers net gains come from flashing/conversions. I'd imagine a lot, considering the parent company could be liable.
 
jorma said:
Not everyone. Remember the George Hotz vs Sony threads? Same thing. Different sort of outrage. Fun times.
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Those threads literally made me angry, people saying Sony had the right to dictate what you do to your property simply because of blind fanboyism. A dark moment for GAF.
 
Considering I agree with ripclaw on this issue I'm going to go and say this have practically zero support in the public; this is a fucking joke and an abortion of democracy on every level.
 
Good. This will help cut down on wireless fraud, so that crap can stop coming out of my end of year bonus. If you want to buy a massively subsidized handset, then don't cheat the parent company out of the money for it. Go prepaid.
 
notsol337 said:
Good. This will help cut down on wireless fraud, so that crap can stop coming out of my end of year bonus. If you want to buy a massively subsidized handset, then don't cheat the parent company out of the money for it. Go prepaid.
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lol. The parent company scumsuckers can go fuck themselves! They make sure they get theirs with early termination fees, etc.
 
notsol337 said:
Good. This will help cut down on wireless fraud, so that crap can stop coming out of my end of year bonus. If you want to buy a massively subsidized handset, then don't cheat the parent company out of the money for it. Go prepaid.
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What fraud? If someone unlocks a phone they are still on the hook for the 2 year contract.
 
GoldenEye 007 said:
lol. The parent company scumsuckers can go fuck themselves! They make sure they get theirs with early termination fees, etc.
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I work at RadioShack. When people do that, it directly affects the commissioned salespeople. It doesn't matter if they're still on the hook for the contract. Most of the time, they just let that go to collections. Another popular method is to tell the carrier that the phone was returned to the store and cancel the account. It hurts me directly when people buy phones to unlock and sell, and I'm glad they can't do it anymore. Also, if you don't like a company, don't support it. Theft is never a good option.
 
notsol337 said:
It hurts me directly when people buy phones to unlock and sell, and I'm glad they can't do it anymore.
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I dont quite understand what's going on here

1.Get phone with 2 year contract
2.unlock and sell phone, get a cheaper handset with small portion of money
3.continue to pay for contract

OR

1. Buy phone locked to certain provider
2. Unlock and sell for more
3. Profit

Where are you losing money?
 
Tashbrooke said:
I dont quite understand what's going on here

1.Get phone with 2 year contract
2.unlock and sell phone, get a cheaper handset with small portion of money
3.continue to pay for contract

OR

1. Buy phone locked to certain provider
2. Unlock and sell for more
3. Profit

Where are you losing money?
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When someone comes into my store and buys, say, a brand new verizon iphone 5, they pay 200 dollars for it. My store paid 672 dollars for it. However, verizon gives us a sales commission and it ends up being an 850 dollar sale. Two weeks later, dude unlocks his phone and sells it off. He calls verizon and says "I returned the phone to the store" and they cancel his account. Verizon takes my 650 dollar sales commission back, and I just lost 472 dollars on the phone. Dude made 400 bucks on my 472 dollar loss. I have to sell 2 more phones just to even it out. On top of that, my carrier rep is now getting yelled at because we're not returning the phone that the guy sold. It is entirely unethical to defraud someone like that.

Here's another scenario. Dude comes in and buys an iphone 5 on sprint, and he can't really afford to pay his bill, so he unlocks the phone and sells it off and lets his account lapse. Sprint comes in and takes my commission credit away from my store if it happens in the first 6 months, and I'm still missing the phone, so it's close to a 500 dollar loss. His credit is getting wrecked, I've lost my commission, and now I have to sell 2 more phones to equal it out.

When that happens 3 times a month, it can cost a store manager their entire bonus. It doesn't matter if you like how it works, it's still fraud. I'd rather just have phone subsidies end entirely, but this will help keep me out of the red. You can still get a carrier's permission to unlock your phone. If this means people have to buy out their contracts to unlock their phone (and in doing so pay for the rest of the equipment cost) then I'm good with that. If you can't follow the rules, don't sign a contract.
 
notsol337 said:
When someone comes into my store and buys, say, a brand new verizon iphone 5, they pay 200 dollars for it. My store paid 672 dollars for it. However, verizon gives us a sales commission and it ends up being an 850 dollar sale. Two weeks later, dude unlocks his phone and sells it off. He calls verizon and says "I returned the phone to the store" and they cancel his account. Verizon takes my 650 dollar sales commission back, and I just lost 472 dollars on the phone. Dude made 400 bucks on my 472 dollar loss. I have to sell 2 more phones just to even it out. On top of that, my carrier rep is now getting yelled at because we're not returning the phone that the guy sold. It is entirely unethical to defraud someone like that.
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Bolded is the problematic behavior that is solvable by simple company policy, not by changing the law of the country for behavior that consumers can lawfully do without screwing over sellers every time.
 
Gentleman Jack said:
Bolded is the problematic behavior that is solvable by simple company policy, not by changing the law of the country for behavior that consumers can lawfully do without screwing over sellers every time.
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Sprint and AT&T changed that awhile ago. Again, you can still call the carrier and get permission to unlock the phone. Hopefully the massive fine will be a deterrent against the criminal activity that goes along with it.
 
Yeah that is completely fucked up. I've been selling phones for years and I've NEVER heard of a customer being allowed to cancel his account within the return period by just telling the carrier the store has the phone.

For one, we have to call and cancel the account, then we have to verify the phone is in our possession and confirm the IMEI matches.

If the carrier is allowing this, they are to blame and need to change their policy.
 
SirMossyBloke said:
Yeah that is completely fucked up. I've been selling phones for years and I've NEVER heard of a customer being allowed to cancel his account within the return period by just telling the carrier the store has the phone.

For one, we have to call and cancel the account, then we have to verify the phone is in our possession and confirm the IMEI matches.

If the carrier is allowing this, they are to blame and need to change their policy.
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Verizon has let this happen to my store twice now, even though they aren't supposed to. With Sprint and AT&T, that's exactly what I do.
 
notsol337 said:
. He calls verizon and says "I returned the phone to the store" and they cancel his account. Verizon takes my 650 dollar sales commission back, and I just lost 472 dollars on the phone. Dude made 400 bucks on my 472 dollar loss.
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Okay, this doesnt really have anything to do with unlocking, that's just plain theft.

the providers should be changing their legislation/contract

Over here in the UK that shit would not happen, because there are parts in the contract which stop that..

First of all, you cant just ring up a provider saying you've returned the phone and they'll just believe you...that shit has to be verified...Maybe you should talk to your manager about that because it seems illogical not to have such a system

Secondly unless it's still in the return policy you have to buy out the rest of your contract, so if its got 12 months left on it... you got to pay for those motherfucking 12 months PLUS a cancellation fee...

That's why i find this law being passed so baffling, there are so many loophoes here it seems like such a cheap 'quick-fix' to do it this way
 
Tashbrooke said:
Okay, this doesnt really have anything to do with unlocking, that's just plain theft.

the providers should be changing their legislation/contract

Over here in the UK that shit would not happen, because there are parts in the contract which stop that..

First of all, you cant just ring up a provider saying you've returned the phone and they'll just believe you...that shit has to be verified...Maybe you should talk to your manager about that because it seems illogical not to have such a system

Secondly unless it's still in the return policy you have to buy out the rest of your contract, so if its got 12 months left on it... you got to pay for those motherfucking 12 months PLUS a cancellation fee...

That's why i find this law being passed so baffling, there are so many loophoes here it seems like such a cheap 'quick-fix' to do it this way
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I'd much rather have subsidies go away, but this will help prevent some of the fraud at least. It does suck that it hurts legit customers, though. I guess I'm on the fence about it, but from a business standpoint it's a good thing. The Euro system is so much better than ours, holy crap.

Also, it's entirely possible that they called the retail support line with our activations id number. Both times that happened, the transactions that were made were activated over the phone. It's not hard to call up and go "My name is <same as employee> and my code is <bleh>, and I have a customer returning a phone." I can't prove that's how it happened, but I'm still kinda pissed off about it. It's a terrible policy, but that's how it's set up.

Maybe I'm just bitter because the only person it doesn't hurt is the person committing the fraud.
 
Meanwhile in Canada. Where it is not illegal to unlock you're phone.

New changes on their way.

http://www.androidincanada.ca/news/new-crtc-wireless-rules-coming-to-canada/

•When customers sign up for multi-year contracts, they will receive simple to read documentation that highlights key terms and conditions they are agreeing to.
•Carriers will be required to provide consumers with a fee schedule according to the contract length, showing how much it will cost to buy out their contract.
•Consumers must be provided with proper tools and services for monitoring talk, text, and data usage.
•Wireless providers will be required to unlock customer devices under “reasonable terms.” Although I’m not sure what “reasonable terms” means in the Canadian wireless industry, these terms will pertain to fees and time frames.
•Customers will be allowed to restrict features to prevent overage charges. This basically means our data connection will stop working if we’ve reached our limit, rather than paying overage fees.
•Early termination fees will now only be based on the subsidy of the consumer’s device. Nice.
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Cell phone unlocking in the United States became illegal in late January for new devices, prompting a White House petition urging the government to look into the issue.

The petition on the WeThePeople platform successfully garnered the 100,000 signatures necessary for an official White House response, and the backlash over the ban also caught the attention of the Federal Communications Commission.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told TechCrunch that the FCC will investigate to determine whether or not the ban results in harmful effects for consumers. The “ban raises competition concerns; it raises innovation concerns,” he said.

Genachowski isn't sure what authority he has, but if he finds any, given the tone of the conversation, it's likely he will exert his influence to reverse the decision. "It's something that we will look at at the FCC to see if we can and should enable consumers to use unlocked phones."

At this time, it is illegal to unlock newly purchased cellular phones in the United States without express carrier permission. Devices purchased prior to January 26, 2013 may be unlocked and unlocked devices can be purchased at unsubsidized prices from cell phone carriers.
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http://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/01/fcc-will-investigate-u-s-mobile-phone-unlocking-ban/
 
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