Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in
1998, making it illegal to access copyrighted content and break digital rights
management technologies. The software that locks a smartphone to one carrier is
covered by the act, and unlocking a phone is the process of freeing a device so
that it can be used with a different wireless carrier.
The Library of Congress has the ability to grant exemptions
to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which it has done in the past for
smartphone users who wished to unlock their phones. That changed with the most
recent group of exemptions that went into effect October 28, but the switch
included a 90-day grace period that ends Saturday.
Smartphones purchased after Saturday can't be legally
unlocked without permission from the carrier. The new policy only applies to
new locked phones purchased after Saturday, meaning it will still be legal to
unlock phones purchased before January 26 without permission.
One way to get around the requirement is to buy a
full-priced unlocked phone that doesn't have a contract, but doing so adds
hundreds of dollars to the phone's price tag.
Carriers subsidize the costs of smartphones to draw new
customers in with contracts, usually for two years, and then make back the
money from monthly voice and data bills.
