If you planned on buying a BlackBerry 10 device from the first carrier that had it available and then just unlocking it to use on your own carrier you might want to think again. If you’re in the United States effective Saturday January 26, 2013 according to the Library of Congress any smartphones purchased after that date can’t be legally unlocked without the carriers approval.
The reason for this change is that Congress had passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act back in 1998 which made it illegal to access copyrighted content and break digital rights technologies. What does that mean to you? Well the software that locks a smartphone to a carrier is covered by the act making it illegal to unlock the phone.
Congress has the ability to grant exemptions to this act which they have been doing but that changed with the most recent group of exemptions that went into effect October 28, 2012 but the switch included a 90-day grace period that ends on Saturday and that’s why we are just now getting news about this policy.
What do you think of this new policy? Will it effect you in any way? Sound off in the comments and let us know.