A few weeks ago we shared that as of January 26th it is now illegal to unlock your carrier-contracted cell phone in the United States. Needless to say this was a pretty big topic that had many of us up in arms. Since then, an official petition went up online that aims to get the White House to take a look at making it legal again. For a number of reasons we elected not to officially post a follow-up news story on the front page, but instead let our members post this petition in the member news section and in the original thread discussion in the link above. Sometimes it's best to let our members run with the ball, rather than appear to take a particular stand one way or the other. This is despite the fact that most of us here at HQ are excited by the possibilities the petition represents.
Regardless, we felt compelled to share some good news with you today on this subject. Checking out the official petition site, here, shows that we have reached the 100,000 mark goal! This was the first goal necessary to get the White House to take a look at the petition and review the topic further. Of course, there is still a long way to go before the law can be changed or overturned, but the first big hurdle is now behind us.
If you are curious about this topic further, we have some interesting links to share with you regarding the topic. The first one below is a true story about a college student who first bumped into this law and gives a bit of history and perspective on the subject. It's a quick easy read and definitely worth your time. The second and third are simply links to some of our previous posts on the subject. You may be able to glean some further info from reading folks comments. The final link is the Petition itself. It's interesting to note that several websites covered this topic after we shared our original unlock story (although we don't claim to be the first).
Here are those links:
Motorola Tried to Sue Me For Unlocking Phones | Sina.is
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...n-26th-will-illegal-us-unlock-your-phone.html
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...petition-started-combat-phone-unlock-law.html
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7
It will probably be a long fight before anything gets changed, but at least the ball is rolling now! As always, please keep the politically polarizing comments out of the discussion. Please stay on the topic at hand and keep things civil. Thanks guys!
