FCC Investigating U.S. Ban of Unlocking Cell Phones

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Guide community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Kami3k

Distinguished
Jan 17, 2008
575
0
18,930
[citation][nom]Soda-88[/nom]Nice one, Anders Breivik got 21 years for murdering 77 people and US citizens who unlock their phone can get 1/4 of that. I think it's safe to say that I'm glad I don't live there.[/citation]

No he got life. He will ALWAYS be a threat to society.

I suggest you stop watching Fox News and do research for once.
 

Kami3k

Distinguished
Jan 17, 2008
575
0
18,930
[citation][nom]BadCommand[/nom]Just 21 years for murdering 77 people- I can say I'm glad I don't live there.[/citation]

Lol.... Only in the USA could such ignorance be so proudly said.
 

crysiswarmonger

Distinguished
May 4, 2010
2
0
18,510
It is not rent to own. You can change your phone at anytime during the contract to another phone. If yours is broke or stolen you just fulfill your contract you signed with any phone, or no phone as long as you pay the bill. You can also cancel the contract as you signed to pay a cancellation fee.

If it is rent to own, I should be paying less than I am for the plan I have four phones on my plan that I own outright.
 

Marcus52

Distinguished
Jun 11, 2008
79
0
18,580
Please take note people, this wasn't a "Republicans are for big business" issue, it's a Congress-wide issue; Democrats as well as Republicans were required to put this through.

I suggest that people stop listening to campaign trail rhetoric and start looking at voting records to see the truth about the difference between the two parties. I think you'll find out there really isn't any. Look at why they try to misdirect your attention rather than allowing them to manipulate you through emotional appeals.
 

hahahahahah

Guest
Dec 31, 2001
1
0
18,510
Marcus52: Yes and no. About half of the democrats regularly get down on their knees to pleasure big business to the detriment of the average American, but literally 99% of republicans vote in favor of big business no matter what. Often times the democrat is a crook, but there is only about a 0.00001% chance that the republican you would vote for is any less of a crook than the Democrat, their entire party is hopelessly corrupt, and any decent person who breaks lockstep with the party line gets run right out of congress.

90% of Americans want GMOs to be labelled. 25 Democrats and 1 Republican vote "Yes" to labelling, and 49 Republicans and 25 Democrats say "You guys are just picking on poor helpless Monsanto":

http://foodfreedomgroup.com/2012/06/23/senate-votes-no-gmo-food-labels/

So the Republican party is a lost cause for any attempt at doing the bidding of the people and not big business.
 

crysiswarmonger

Distinguished
May 4, 2010
2
0
18,510
[citation][nom]rgs80074[/nom]yes i fully agree, these punishment is insane for unlocking a phone.you should be able to unlock your phone once your done with the contract, and i agree the company should extend the warranty to the term of the contract to cover the phone. you should be able to jailbreak your phone at anytime without voidnig the warranty.on top of this you pay less for the phone becasue the phone company is subsidizing the phone for the contract. i understand this but for some reason once your out of your contract and such your bill does not go down. so if your no longer paying to subsidize your phone why are we still paying the same for the phone service.[/citation]


I am not renting to own the phone with a contract.

If that is true, I should get a rebate from the phone company every month since I bought all phones without a contract!
 

PreferLinux

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2010
7
0
18,510
[citation][nom]digitalvampire[/nom]You know. If the Linux kernel would change it's license to GPLv3 instead of GPLv2, they wouldn't be allowed to lock cell phones (at least Android) to start with.[/citation]
Except it isn't really possible to change as a few hundred different people all hold the copyright to various portions of the kernel... But if certain parts were changed, assuming v2 and v3 are compatible (and I somehow think they aren't), then it might have the same effect.
 

wildkitten

Distinguished
May 29, 2008
200
0
18,830
[citation][nom]susyque747[/nom]FCC aka FED wants to know exactly who you are. Hail Obama and his Marxist regime.[/citation]
You are exactly right. An arm of the executive branch is investigating a law? No where can that be said to be constitutional. However, what seems to be glossed over is since this is a law, that means the president had to sign it because no way congress has the votes to override a veto. So this whole thing makes no sense, from the law itself to the FCC investigating the law.

And the truly troubling part of this, no one seems to be concerned about the constitutionality of the FCC looking into the law.
 

Sakkura

Distinguished

As far as I can tell from the article, the FCC itself is at least keeping that aspect in mind.
 

wildkitten

Distinguished
May 29, 2008
200
0
18,830
[citation][nom]Sakkura[/nom]As far as I can tell from the article, the FCC itself is at least keeping that aspect in mind.[/citation]
But that's just it, it's a law, the FCC has no business investigating it in the first place. Whether a good law or a bad law, it has to be obeyed until, and hopefully, the courts overturn it. Since it's a law the FCC has no authority whatsoever so what is the point of any investigation on their part? Just because they may be keeping it in mind while they investigate the law is irrelevant, because any investigation is unconstitutional to begin with.

Not to mention the FCC is part of the executive branch. The head of the executive branch is the president. For this to be a law that means the president had to sign it as no veto has been overturned during his term.
 

6kaine9

Distinguished
Apr 26, 2006
9
0
18,510
Three words people: Buy unlocked phones. I paid $400 for my Google Nexus phone last summer. It's been 9 months now and I've only paid $40/month for my phone. Sure I don't have unlimited internet but with WiFi everywhere this isn't really an issue.
 

tokencode

Distinguished
Dec 25, 2010
77
0
18,580
[citation][nom]digitalvampire[/nom]You know. If the Linux kernel would change it's license to GPLv3 instead of GPLv2, they wouldn't be allowed to lock cell phones (at least Android) to start with.[/citation]


Exactly the reason that will never happen....
 

tokencode

Distinguished
Dec 25, 2010
77
0
18,580
[citation][nom]Soda-88[/nom]Nice one, Anders Breivik got 21 years for murdering 77 people and US citizens who unlock their phone can get 1/4 of that. I think it's safe to say that I'm glad I don't live there.[/citation]


If any country is dumb enough to allow a person like him walk free again, they deserve what they get.
 

Sakkura

Distinguished

They can keep him locked up indefinitely, it's just that by Norwegian law they have to reevaluate it at regular intervals after a certain point. He'll probably be let out when he's old and senile, if he doesn't die in jail before then.
 

btdude6

Distinguished
Jul 1, 2010
8
0
18,510
[citation][nom]PreferLinux[/nom]Except it isn't really possible to change as a few hundred different people all hold the copyright to various portions of the kernel... But if certain parts were changed, assuming v2 and v3 are compatible (and I somehow think they aren't), then it might have the same effect.[/citation]

Arghh I knew it sounded too good to be true...
 

cats_Paw

Distinguished
Oct 19, 2007
425
0
18,940
Sice i dont have enought money to pay that fine, im quite sure they wont even look for me if I do unlock my phone.... oh wait, i dont live in USA :D.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.