Cell Phone Owners Allowed To Break Software Locks

An anonymous reader writes "The library of congress approved many copyright exemptions today. Among the exemptions were new rules about cell phones, DVDs, and electronic books." From the article: "Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday. Other copyright exemptions approved by the Library of Congress will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations and let blind people use special software to read copy-protected electronic books. All told, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington approved six exemptions, the most his Copyright Office has ever granted. For the first time, the office exempted groups of users. The new rules will take effect Monday and expire in three years. In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren't able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones' underlying programs."

Hey kitty

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm in ur cellphonez, breaking ur software lockz

sweet

[Anonymous Coward]

turkey and some decent rules

what a good day

Re:Library of Congress?

[Dunbal]

From the DMCA, which gets its authority from the US government, which in turn gets its authority from the voters^H^H^H^H^H^H corporations of the US.

      There, all fixed...

Re:Technicalities

[anothy]

I might buy a phone for $1 and pay it off over 24 months.

wow, times must be really tight if you're making monthly payments on a $1 bill. poor guy.

Re:How about not treating me like a criminal in th

[simonwalton]

I don't understand this story. Can someone give a car analogy please?

Re:How about not treating me like a criminal in th

[geminidomino]

Exactly. The cell carriers double-dip into the "subsidized phone" excuse. First, you have to sign a contract to make sure you're with them long enough for them to make a return on the phone subsidy. Then, after the contract is up, you can't take the phone with you to a new carrier, because they subsidized it.

Re:How about not treating me like a criminal in th

[antonyb]

Most importantly, in 50 or 60 years when the copyrights actually expire, will you still even want your 128kbps mp3? Of course not. The public domain file will be provided in a superior format from a master recording.

Oh - like on Usenet now? ;)

Re:How about not treating me like a criminal in th

[hotdiggitydawg]

Don't worry about drowning at the bottom of the 400 foot cliff; it's the fall that's gonna kill you.

Technically it's not the fall itself that kills you, but the rapid deceleration experienced at the end of it... Of course, once the fall commences you're inevitably screwed unless you had the foresight to save your own ass by packing a parachute.

Wow, finally a Slashdot analogy that fits the situation! I never thought I'd see the day...

I Knew I Slept Long...

[RAMMS+EIN]

Okay, I knew I had slept long...but I didn't think it would be April Fools Day, yet. They're actually _decriminalizing_ limited circumvention of draconian DRM? What a joke!

Re:Don't understand

[BoberFett]

Would you like us to call you Loretta?