$500k fine. 5 years in prison or both.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-most-ridiculous-law-of-2013-so-far-it-is-now-a-crime-to-unlock-your-smartphone/272552/

No it's not illegal.  library of congress said that once you buy the phone it is your property to do with as you want.

Did you read the article or are you just disagreeing with me out of habit?

No it's not illegal.  library of congress said that once you buy the phone it is your property to do with as you want.

ya you are right we have all rights to unlock our phone..we can unlock our phone either by contacting our service provider or getting assistance from any third party vendors online like http://www.mobile-unlocker.com .

Only for phones Manufactured after Jan 1, 2013

Jailbreaking and unlocking are 2 different things.

Jailbreaking (or "rooting" on Android devices) is getting full control over the OS on your device. This is legal but does void your warranty.

Unlocking is removing the carrier restrictions on the phone that only allow you to use it with that carrier. Our smartphones are highly subsidized by the carrier in order to lock in a 2 year contract so you don't actually own your phone. You and the carrier share ownership of it, technically, until the 2 year subsidy is up and you have, technically, finished paying for it. Until that point unlocking carrier restriction on the phone is potentially illegal. Its kinda like a lien on your car title. I think there are avenues to do so if you pay off the contract on the phone, though.

In Europe it is largely illegal for the carriers to lock phones in the first place. As a result they don't subsidize the phones and people have to pay full price for them. $500 - $800. They tend to think we are crazy buying phones that we can't switch carriers with since you then cannot take advantage of competitive pricing. They marvel that Americans who are so fond of touting the miracles of market competition have accepted a phone/carrier scheme that reduces competition for your business.

The European system makes phones horrendously more expensive but you can then save money by carrier hopping. The American system moves more phones since you are more likely to toss a perfectly good device to get a new one after 2 years.

Always a touchy subject for business when they can't take the whole pie from the customer.......