Back in October 2012, the Library of Congress, which oversees how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is enforced, ruled that
cell phone unlocking without your wireless carrier's permission was illegal. Cell-phone users were not happy, and, in July 2014, Congress finally listened and is giving users back the right to unlock cell phones.
The Library of Congress decision was never popular. A
We the People petition asking that
unlocking cell phones be made legal quickly gained popularity. A little more than a month afterwards the White House's R. David Edelman, senior advisor for Internet, Innovation, & Privacy, replied that as far as President Obama was concerned, "neither criminal law nor technological locks should
prevent consumers from switching carriers when they are no longer bound by a service agreement or other obligation."
