White House petition to make phone unlocking legal again hits 100,000 signature threshold

In January, it became illegal to unlock your phone in the U.S., unless your carrier authorizes it.

This week, outrage over the new policy has led to over 100,000 signatures on a petition at the White House site, meaning the government must respond to it and "champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal."

The policy is a big issue for anyone who wants to use their phone abroad, without needing to go through their U.S.' carrier's expensive roaming and international plans. Additionally, anyone who wants to move to a new GSM carrier in the U.S. (such as T-Mobile to AT&T), will have issues.

All phones purchased after January 26th are affected, so unlocking all your older phones will not be a problem.

Unfortunately for those who signed the petition, the new policy is monitored by the Library of Congress and "the Library of Congress is an independent legislative branch agency, and it is unclear what power President Obama has to reverse its decision, even if he agrees with the petition," says NPR.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Feb 2013 21:05

Jemborg

Land of the "Free" indeed.

Can they tell if you unlock your new phone there?

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

25.2.2013 00:56 #1

KillerBug

They usually just ignore these petitions anyway. Sure, they will make a big deal out of a gun control petition with 200 supporters, but they never even responded to some with over 100k...and some have been deleted after 24 hours in spite of getting over 50k in that time. So much for "for the people, by the people".

25.2.2013 06:37 #2

megadunderhead

actually what is funny is that at&t and t-mobile are still offering to unlock peoples phones and are telling the u.s goverment to go #$$%$# themselves

25.2.2013 09:18 #3

Blessedon

Most of these "petitions" are initiated by the White House in order to collect names of opponents to be targeted by their new 501c4 "non-profit" Organizing For Action.
Just thought you should know; The WH uses petitions as a tool, nothing more.

25.2.2013 10:21 #4

Jemborg

Originally posted by KillerBug: They usually just ignore these petitions anyway. Sure, they will make a big deal out of a gun control petition with 200 supporters, but they never even responded to some with over 100k...and some have been deleted after 24 hours in spite of getting over 50k in that time. So much for "for the people, by the people". I've heard nothing about what happened to the petitions dealing with the f@#ks who persecuted Aaron Swartz.

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

25.2.2013 18:25 #5

Mrguss

Originally posted by Jemborg: Originally posted by KillerBug: They usually just ignore these petitions anyway. Sure, they will make a big deal out of a gun control petition with 200 supporters, but they never even responded to some with over 100k...and some have been deleted after 24 hours in spite of getting over 50k in that time. So much for "for the people, by the people". I've heard nothing about what happened to the petitions dealing with the f@#ks who persecuted Aaron Swartz. After Swartz's death, 50K+ people signed an online petition to the WH calling for the removal of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, "for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz." A similar petition has been submitted for prosecutor Stephen Heymann.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

+5000

25.2.2013 20:45 #6

Jemborg

Originally posted by Mrguss: Originally posted by Jemborg: Originally posted by KillerBug: They usually just ignore these petitions anyway. Sure, they will make a big deal out of a gun control petition with 200 supporters, but they never even responded to some with over 100k...and some have been deleted after 24 hours in spite of getting over 50k in that time. So much for "for the people, by the people". I've heard nothing about what happened to the petitions dealing with the f@#ks who persecuted Aaron Swartz. After Swartz's death, 50K+ people signed an online petition to the WH calling for the removal of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, "for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz." A similar petition has been submitted for prosecutor Stephen Heymann.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz I meant to say nothing seems to have been done about them. (Perhaps I'm too early to make this complaint Mrguss?)

Meanwhile, how much money was wasted "making an example of this guy" with an outdated questionable law when fraudsters of the GFC laugh and wipe their bums with 1000 dollar bills?

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

25.2.2013 22:36 #7

pmshah

I have a strange kind of experience with the US carriers. My daughter specifically get a GSM connection when she visited India. The strange thing was the fact that the supplied sim would not function on any other instrument neither would the instrument function with any other sim.

This would mean that even if one is allowed to unlock the phone it would still mean you have a SIM that would not work with any other instrument. So you are still stuck to your provider if you need global AND maintain your telephone number.

Here in India even CDMA phones are not locked! Just buy an instrument, go to your service provider and they would program it for their service. With number portability you can choose a new provider and have him RESET it to their configuration.

Time to Android and get VOIP service through wifi.

26.2.2013 23:18 #8

Mr-Movies

Originally posted by Blessedon: Most of these "petitions" are initiated by the White House in order to collect names of opponents to be targeted by their new 501c4 "non-profit" Organizing For Action.
Just thought you should know; The WH uses petitions as a tool, nothing more. 100% :D

28.2.2013 22:25 #9

AfterDawn: News