New Bill Legalizing Cellphone Unlocking Introduced in House

By Alex Fitzpatrick2013-05-09 19:05:58 UTC

A new bill making it legal to unlock your cellphone or other mobile device has arrived in the House of Representatives.

The Unlocking Technology Act of 2013 would also make it legal to circumvent digital rights management (DRM) locks to use protected content in a way that doesn't violate copyright law and to develop and sell cellphone unlocking software. It was introduced Thursday by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and backed by co-sponsors Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). Lofgren and Polis in particular have earned a reputation for being closely involved in technology policy issues.

The Unlocking Technology Act comes after an intense lobbying effort spearheaded by copyright activists Sina Khanifar and Derek Khanna. Their campaign to legalize unlocking began in January, when the Librarian of Congress failed to include unlocking in an updated list of exemptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Written in 1988, the DMCA made it illegal to create or sell software for circumventing anti-piracy locks on digital content. It also made it illegal to circumvent those locks to use protected content regardless of whether the intended use was a violation of existing copyright law. The Librarian of Congress is authorized to update a list of exemptions to the DMCA once every three years.

While several unlocking bills have been floated over the past four months, the Unlocking Technology Act comes with Khanifar and Khanna's seal of approval.

"This legislation substantively addresses the concerns of 114,000 Americans when they signed our White House petition which resulted in the White House reversing and endorsing phone unlocking," wrote Khanna in an e-mail referencing a petition the pair opened to call attention to the issue. "It's really quite an amazing step forward. Not only does it completely legalize unlocking cellphones, but goes the extra step of amending Section 1201 of the DMCA," said Khanifar in a separate email.

The White House responded to the pair's petition in March, announcing its support for legalizing unlocking and thus signaling the president would sign an unlocking bill should one reach his desk. Outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski later said the ban raises "concerns."

Digital rights activists are applauding the Unlocking Technology Act.

"This bipartisan bill not only makes it clear that consumers can, of course, unlock their phones without fear of legal repercussions; it also addresses a longstanding problem with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)," said Sherwin Siy, Vice President of Legal Affairs for Public Knowledge, in a statement.

Owners of a mobile device might choose to unlock their device for several reasons. It's most commonly done to switch a mobile phone from the wireless service on which it was originally sold to another service. Globe trekkers also favor unlocked cellphones as it's easy to drop a new SIM card into unlocked devices to get them working in a new country.

The full text of the Unlocking Technology Act, which will be debated by the House Judiciary Committee, is embedded below. Should it be once again legal to unlock a cellphone? Share your thoughts in the comments.

H.R. 1892 Unlocking Technology Act of 2013

Image via Sean Gallup/Getty Images

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CISPA Probably Won't Be Introduced In the Senate

Alex Fitzpatrick2013-04-26 02:27:19 UTC

The House of Representative's version of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, probably won't be taken up in its entirety by the Senate, according to a new report. CISPA passed the House last week with bipartisan support despite a veto threat from the White House.

"We're not taking [CISPA] up," an anonymous representative of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation told U.S. News and World Report. "Staff and senators are divvying up the issues and the key provisions everyone agrees would need to be handled if we're going to strengthen cybersecurity. They'll be drafting separate bills."

When reached for comment, commerce committee spokesperson Kevin McAlister emailed Mashable a previously issued statement from Chairman John D. Rockefeller (D-W.V.) saying he prefers an all-encompassing cybersecurity bill:

“Today’s action in the House is important, even if CISPA’s privacy protections are insufficient. We need action on all the elements that will strengthen our cybersecurity, not just one, and that's what the Senate will achieve. I plan to work with Senator Thune, as well as the Chairmen and Ranking Members on other Committees of jurisdiction, to go through regular order. I believe we can gain bipartisan agreement on bills that we can report out of our Committees and allow Leader Reid to bring them to the Senate floor as early as possible. There is too much at stake – our economic and national security – for Congress to fail to act.”

CISPA, which is designed to allow businesses and federal agencies to share cybersecurity threat information, certainly deals with commerce. However, the bill was actually referred to the Senate Intelligence Committee. When reached for comment by Mashable, Tom Mentzer, Press Secretary for Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), offered a Feinstein quote saying the committee is working on its own version of an information-sharing bill, corroborating what the anonymous source suggested.

"We are currently drafting a bipartisan information sharing bill and will proceed as soon as we come to an agreement," said Feinstein.

CISPA was long expected to stall in the Senate as it did last year, which is debating other approaches to cybersecurity. However, as the anonymous quote and various committee spokespersons indicate, some elements of CISPA may yet find new life in the Senate in other bills. Thus, it's not entirely fair to say CISPA as a whole is "dead" based on this report — but the odds that CISPA as passed by the House will make it through the Senate are near-zero.

Advocates for CISPA, mostly business interests, argue such sharing is necessary to deflect hackers in real time. Opponents of the bill argue it would compromise online privacy and afford undue liability protection to companies which share data with the government.

Is CISPA the right approach to cybersecurity legislation? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image via iStockphoto, uschools

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