As of today, Americans can legally unlock their phones again

[matteosaeed]

Hey everyone,

I stumbled across this tonight and the sentence below got my attention.


The bill will restore a copyright exemption that allows customers (or authorized third parties) to modify a phone's firmware, removing the restrictions that most carriers place on their phones.

As of today, Americans can legally unlock their phones again
http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/1/5959915/president-barack-obama-signing-phone-unlocking-bill

Would that mean that we should be allowed to get a bootloader unlock regarding what att supports and doesn't support?

 

[malickie]

That would be awesome. Now just gotta wait and see if the carriers and manufacturers actually follow through with this or will only follow through with it on New Devices and leave the older ones to rot.

 

[NightHawkUndead]

Tell me if I'm wrong but doesn't this only apply to carrier unlock. Has nothing to do with bootloaders

 

[matteosaeed]

Tell me if I'm wrong but doesn't this only apply to carrier unlock. Has nothing to do with bootloaders

I think you're right but when I read in the article all that stuff about unlocking more stuff more than just the Sim. That definitely got me interested to read this bill. They'll try to resist but who knows.

 

[malickie]

Tell me if I'm wrong but doesn't this only apply to carrier unlock. Has nothing to do with bootloaders

I thought the same thin until I saw this line, "The bill will restore a copyright exemption that allows customers (or authorized third parties) to modify a phone's firmware, removing the restrictions that most carriers place on their phones" Plus as it stands most carries will carrier unlock a phone after a year anyway. Or you can say hey I am going out of country and need this phone unlocked and they will usually do it if they have the ability to do so. Sometimes they say they can't carrier unlock them because they are too knew blah blah. Either way you can legally carrier unlock a phone anyway it's when you get into firmware modding that it say's you void your warranty so I am guessing this bill if all goes as it should would get rid of the void warranty to some extent.

 

[K-alz]

I very much doubt that. It's for the regional lock that became "illegal" last year. It was all over the news. Now that the petition hit 100,000 vote they had to legalize it again. But hey I'd go with the bootloader unlock. Why not. Hell I'm smacking a cyanogenmod rom to my phone as soon as the bootloader is unlocked. Lol

 

[faslane]

This is for carrier region unlock only. Nothing more. It's the same unlock that WAS legal until over a year ago by the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) it passed Congress and you can now legally unlock your phone for other carriers. Doesn't have anything to do with bootloader. Your carrier may not unlock if still on contract but it's no longer illegal to go through a 3rd party if you need unlock for overseas travel (for instance) and need to use a different dim to avoid international rates through your regular carrier. It sounds good and all but won't apply to many who are under contract anyway or happy with their carrier. When unlocking a phone you are technically editing hardware so that's why the word firmware is used. It's "broad" form is all....legal jargon if you will.
Bootloader isn't happening as a result of this. But maybe someday it won't matter who knows.

 

[KennyG123]

Thread cleaned of political comments and profanity

And as others have said...this has nothing to do with bootloader..it is unlocking sim to other carriers or regions.
The carriers still have all rights to lock down phones from tampering.

 

[Delakit]

Reported for a signed petition to take off "(Bootloader)" Lol.

 

[DutchDogg54]

Based on the fact that this is clearly NOT referring to the bootloader, and due to the inordinately large volume of mod action already needed on this tiny thread, I've deleted the "(Bootloader)" from the title. It is misleading and unnecessary.

Thanks & most certainly carry on discussing the good news about carrier unlocking that this is.

 

[hajjikoko]

Yea bootloader will never ever happen... it was bogus that before this if you couldn't buy an unlock code and use your phone "legally".

Let's hope the carriers honor this and provide unlock codes without many hoops...