Hasta La Gadget!

The recent ruling that effectively bans third-party phone unlocking has ruffled more than a few feathers, and the people have spoken with their electronic signatures — 114,322 of them, to be exact. Now the petition to the White House, which asks that DMCA protection of phone unlockers be reconsidered, has finally received an official response, and it appears that it’s for the positive. The author of the letter is R. David Edelman, Senior Advisor for Internet, Innovation and Privacy.

“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,” Edelman writes. All told, the response matches that of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which wrote a letter to the Librarian of Congress in support of extending the exemption last year.

So what does this mean for us? Edelman states: “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.” We’re not going to see immediate change, but it appears that a chain of events is now in motion in which the FCC and Congress potentially play a huge role. We’re not out of the woods yet, but it’s relieving to see such a positive response — along with a call to action — from the government.

Read the response in its entirety below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Source: White House

We’re sure that there are gamers out there who wish to be able to play Japanese games, and gamers in Japan who wish to get their hands on games released in the US or Europe, but unfortunately due to region locking, they have to wait a while before those games are released in their markets if at all. This might not be a big deal to some, but at the same time it can be slightly annoying to find your favorite game is region locked to another region. That being said a gamer by the name of Cheesemeister has since launched a petition and is basically asking the White House to enforce a ban on region locking. Of course it isn’t certain at the moment as to whether the petition will be successfully heard, or what the White House will be able to do. We’re sure that developers and console manufacturers all have their reasons for region locking, such as licensing rights which differs from country to country, so some developers might choose to distribute their games to a certain region based on that reason alone. In any case if you feel that region locking should be abolished, feel free to sign Cheesemeister’s petition in the link above.

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The US has a love affair with imperial units: height in inches, milk in quarts, weight in pounds. You name it, and it’s measured in imperial. The only problem? Imperial is dumb. So let’s cast of those shackles and join the rest of the world by embracing units that make sense. Let’s go metric, once and for all. More »