White House Agrees, “Legalize it!” Cellphone unlocking that Is

It didn’t take long for people to get a little more than flustered about cellphone unlocking becoming illegal. Not like we all feared that the FBI would come smashing through our windows for unlocking our phones, but the fact that it was illegal was enough to get the juices flowing. A petition was started rather quickly that encouraged the White House to do something about it. Once the petition hit its required signatures, 100,000, the White House would be required to look into it and either support the law or not. Well, the petition is sitting at over 114,000 and the White House is in full agreement with R. David Edelman, Senior Advisor for Internet, Innovation and Privacy writes:

“The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties,”

That is pretty great news. Of course nothing is changed just yet. As with anything, there is legal red tape, documents, laws, rules and specific to outline and go through first.

“The Obama Administration would support a range of approaches to addressing this issue, including narrow legislative fixes in the telecommunications space that make it clear: neither criminal law nor technological locks should prevent consumers from switching carriers when they are no longer bound by a service agreement or other obligation.”

Although we aren’t all that thrilled with the word choice “no longer bound by a service agreement or other obligation.” All that means is that they think you should be free to unlock your device, as long as you aren’t on a contract for it still. Is it even really a win though? It is certainly a step in the right direction.

Source: We the People & AndroidHeadlines