shepd's Journal: Sierra Club violating the DMCA?

It would seem the Sierra Club has taken to violating the DMCA!

They are recycling cell phones for the third world, yet obviously the third world isn't going to have any of the providers these phones are locked to (in the US, virtually all phones sold are locked to a provider).

They actually mentioned during a TechTV snippet that they are having trouble when they unlock Sprint phones.

This can't possibly be legal under the DMCA, however I am not sure if they have received rights from Sprint, et al. to unlock these phones (I highly doubt it, as the Sierra Club say they are reselling some phones to US customers). If they have, then freely ignore this message, and stop buying locked phones.

If ever a trial case was needed to take down the DMCA, this is it. These guys don't take no for an answer. Someone should send this to Sprint and get the ball rolling (I'm not, as I'm not a US citizen, so they'd laugh at me).

hmm

[asv108]

Unlocking cellphone hardware would definitely be a violation of the DMCA. I agree that this case would be an excellent test, specially with the Sierra club . They would have the legal credibility and a good charitable reason why they are violating the law. The only problem is testing the law would require one of the affected parties to take action, which is extremely unlikely in this case.

Precedent-building?

[salimma]

The only problem is testing the law would require one of the affected parties to take action, which is extremely unlikely in this case.

Would it be usable in court next time someone is charged with breaking the DMCA, as a counter-example? As in 'look, the Sierra Club broke the DMCA and nobody did anything about it'.

disclaimer: IANAL.