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Originally Posted by FanIn80
Is it going to be illegal to jailbreak it? I know it will be illegal to unlock it so you can use it with other carriers, but I saw nothing that made it illegal to simply alter the operating system.
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Intent doesn't enter into it, breaking a digital lock would be illegal.
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Because (this part is very important) of the way the mobile industry in North America operates, I think it should be illegal to unlock a cell phone.
Take the iPhone. Apple negotiated an exclusive agreement with AT&T as the sole provider of the iPhone when it first launched. Imagine how many ways they had to change their service, their business model, their support center... everything. Imagine, also, the ripple effect the iPhone had on their other plans and products.
Do you really think it was fair to AT&T that 2 days after the iPhone launched, people were walking around and using their phones with other carriers? Do you think it was fair that those other carriers got money from people using AT&T "exclusive" iPhones, when the other carriers didn't have to give up one single thing or change on single aspect of their company to get that money?
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That was a problem for the first iPhone, but hasn't been for the second iteration, because they closed the loophole in their
process that allowed that to happen.. it wasn't a legality issue that caused that to happen, it was because they didn't require a contract to activate the phone.
If I pay full price (i.e. non-carrier subsidized price) for a device, then yes I should be able to use it on whatever carrier I see fit.
And that's not even considering people who travel a lot and can't use their phones outside their own countries.
Again it's a matter of allowing companies to control what's purchased after the fact. If they want to have that in place (like AT&T exclusivity) that's fine, but do it through business processes and contracts like everyone else does, not through some special part of the law that gives them access to my personal life whenever they want.