originally posted in:Secular Sevens
Yeah this reeks of cellphone service lobbying if you ask me. Now this means that if I go out of the country I'd have to risk expensive roaming fees because I can't use a sim card from a different cell service.
Good to know that unlocking my smartphone puts me in the same group as burglars and muggers.
First time offenders can be fined for up to $500,000 or imprisoned for five years or both.
Any thoughts?
EDIT: If you guys didn't know, unlocking a smartphone just means that you can use it with multiple service providers, which is useful if you travel out of the country away from your service area frequently. Because then you can just pop in a sim card from the country you're in without having to worry about expensive roaming fees from your home service provider.
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Edited by Jaaake AU: 1/28/2013 3:18:13 PMHere in Australia it just costs something like $80 to unlock (depending on service provider). Doesn't make sense to me why it would be illegal... Unless of course people were doing it by modifying the software. Then I'd understand I guess.
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I don't have a smartphone.
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I am a civilized person with actual insights on this matter and... oh -blam!- it! 'Murica lol!
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Edited by Entraps: 1/27/2013 11:54:55 PMFurthermore, there shouldn't even [i]be[/i] roaming charges anyway. I'm paying for service on [i]my cellphone[/i], and I should get that service anywhere I go for no extra charge, [b]no -blam!-ing exceptions[/b]. Phone service providers are the pinnacle of greed.
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Interdasting Seriously, this is -blam!-ing retarded.
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Or you could, ya know, tell your phone carrier you are out of country and get an out-of-country plan for that time period. I can't see how that is prohibitively more expensive than an international sim card. The data from providers like ATT is generally cheaper than international sim card rates on data that I've seen. Most sim cards are 0.49 per meg and ATT runs 0.25 a meg or lower. Calling is more expensive, but who really makes a lot of calls nowadays anyway.
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And how exactly are they going to catch you doing this?
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Edited by Google Chrome: 1/27/2013 11:33:08 PMThis has nothing to do with modifying your phone through jailbreaking or rooting. This only applies to unlocking your phone to use different carriers. However... that's an absurd punishment...
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Charging a fee to have your phone unlocked is fine (which is how I assume it worked before this), but this... jesus christ wat
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Well, if you are purposely manipulating the phone to steal content or information, then there should be consequences. I dont agree with the fine level though.
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Sounds good to me.
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Wow... That is absolutely ridiculous. Why do little crimes like these have such ridiculously high fines and prison sentences?
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Edited by Entraps: 1/27/2013 11:51:43 PMThat's just absurd. Why do these minor 'crimes' have such retardedly high fines and disproportionate punishments? It's like how they'll charge a guy who downloaded one pirated song $200,000. That's absurd, a fair fine would be maybe 10 bucks.
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Yet another totally un-proportional law where the victim is the "criminal".
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Okay.
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I slightly modified something I own, I am a criminal!
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Edited by Ryan: 1/27/2013 11:31:05 PMI don't know what 'unlocking a smartphone' actually allows you to do but if it gives you access to content that you would otherwise had to pay for, then it should be illegal to access that content after unlocking the phone.
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I wish I was as free as Americans...