The DMCA
There’s a lot of hub-bub around the whole unlocked phone issue and the DMCA in the States. I’ve broken it down for you here.
There’s a lot of confusion around unlocked phones right now. Recently, the Library of Congress Librarian, who has jurisdiction over expectations in the DMCA removed an exemption related to removing a carrier lock on a cell phone; but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Here are a few important factoids around the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA.
- Put into effect 12-Oct-1998
- Portions adopted by the EU in the Electronic Commerce Directive 2000. The Copyright Directive 2001 implemented the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty in the EU.
- Amends Title 17 Copyright Laws in the States and criminalizes the circumvention of DRM protecting copyrighted works.
- It also criminalizes the act of circumventing of DRM or other controls regardless of whether or not copyright is actually infringed.
- Heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet[citation needed].
When you think of the DMCA, think MP3’s and digital music. That’s what legislators had in their heads when they wrote the law. The whole Napster fiasco had the RIAA spitting nails and they were a powerful enough lobby to get Congress to pull together modifications to copyright law that addressed pirating digital music Well, that and software, which is where the whole locked phone thing comes into play.
Previously in 2006 and again in 2010, the Librarian of Congress exempted the circumvention of methods around removing the carrier lock in a cell phone’s firmware. This lock is nothing more than software preventing the use of that phone on a competing wireless network. As of 27-Jan-2013, it is now illegal to unlock any cellphone purchased after that date without the expressed permission of the device manufacturer, the wireless carrier, or both.
Jailbreaking a device, or removing the lock preventing sandboxing of applications is still permitted. So, you don’t have to worry about your rooted Android phone/tablet or jailbroken iDevice violating the law. You can still do that for now.
Come back next time and I’ll dive into some of the details around what you can and cannot do, and what many – myself included – recommend you do.
