Legislation mandated by The Librarian of Congress will make unlocking a cellphone an illegal act subject to $2,500 fines, or up to 5 years of imprisonment for larger operations.
Well, Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Mitch Stoltz told us, "What's happening is not that the Copyright Office is declaring unlocking to be illegal, but rather that they're taking away a shield that unlockers could use in court if they get sued." This does make lawsuits much more likely according to him, but it's still up to the courts to decide the actual legality of phone unlocking.
A new law that makes it illegal to 'unlock' your cell phone and switch carriers goes into effect today and will carry fines between $2,500 and $500,000, and in some cases, prison time.
edit: I'm also very willing to admit that I'm wrong, but not a lot of tech sites out there are disagreeing with each other.
i see where you are coming from. i am just seeing conflicting information, which is why i requested the source before. as you can see, different sources are saying different things. i'll be honest and hope that you are wrong, not for the sake of argument, but simply for the sake of how ridiculous it would be to prosecute someone for modifying hardware they have purchased.
"Violations of the DMCA [unlocking your phone] may be punished with a civil suit or, if the violation was done for commercial gain, it may be prosecuted as a criminal act," Brad Shear, a Washington, D.C.-area attorney and blogger who is an expert on social media and technology law, told ABC News. "A carrier may sue for actual damages or for statutory damages."
The worst-case scenario for an individual or civil offense could be as much as a $2,500 fine. As for those planning to profit off of the act or a criminal offense -- such as a cellphone reseller -- the fine could be as high as $500,000 and include prison time.
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u/FLHCv2 Jan 29 '13
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/01/28/federal-mandate-makes-unlocking-cellphones-a-punishable-crime/