The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone

[farminator3000]

44. you're right, but they probably don't know or care. both control issues...

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/smartphones/pros-and-cons-of-jailbreaking-or-rooting-your-smartphone/1460

jailbreaking?

Is it legal?

Up until July 26, 2010, jailbreaking or rooting your phone was considered illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). That law, enacted in 1998, criminalized the circumvention of access controls technologies. However, the law also gives the Librarian of Congress the power to designate exceptions. This year’s ruling made an exception for software that enables a wireless phone to execute software applications (i.e., jailbreaking or rooting).

Although as far as I can tell, nobody was prosecuted for jailbreaking their phones prior to the legalization, some say Apple did threaten to do so. Note that the ruling only affects criminal prosecution; the ruling doesn’t address breach of contract. Therefore, if you signed a contract in which you agree not to jailbreak the phone, it doesn’t keep the phone vendors from issuing patches to “undo” your jailbreak or even brick your jailbroken phone.
Why the handset makers and carriers hate it

Don’t call up your cellular carrier and ask for help jailbreaking or rooting your phone — the carriers and the phone makers hate the entire idea. That’s because it takes control away from them and gives it to the phone’s owner.

Phone manufacturers don’t want you to do it because of the small number of cases in which it can make the phone unstable or open it up to security breaches. It then makes them look bad because it’s their phone that’s crashing or introducing malware to your network.

Carriers hate it even more because it can cost them money. They even go so far as to “cripple” features that the phone makers build in, so they can charge you an extra fee for the same service. One example is Wi-Fi hotspot capability, for which carriers charge up to $30 per month when you can do the same thing on a rooted phone with no extra fees using a free or low, one-time-cost app.