It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone

The Atlantic  has just reported that “the most ridiculous law of 2013 (so far)” is about to go in affect this weekend.  Watch out perpetrators; it is now illegal to unlock your smartphone.

Unlocking, or jailbreaking, smartphones is a method used to make your phone available on other carriers. For example, before iPhones became available through Verizon and other companies, people would jailbreak their iPhones in order to be able to use their phone without being forced to commit to a 2 year contract with AT&T (then the only carriers of iPhones).

Hopefully this new law doesn’t spark the arrests of thousands (including grandma) like the 2003  Recording Industry Association of America lawsuit against people downloading from Kazaa, Napster and similar music sharing sites.

Caveat emptor.