U.S. Copyright Office OKs handset unlocking

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By Jeffrey Silva
Nov 27, 2006
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Copyright Office recommended that mobile-phone subscribers beginning Dec. 1 can keep their handsets to use on other wireless networks when they change cellular operators, a minimum three-year ruling with huge implications for carriers and vendors. “The underlying activity sought to be performed by the owner of the handset is to allow the handset to do what it was manufactured to do—lawfully connect to any carrier. … The purpose of the software lock appears to be limited to restricting the owner’s use of the mobile handset to support a business model, rather than to protect access to copyrighted work itself,” said Marybeth Peters, register of copyrights.
However, the mobile-phone industry said carriers may well continue to prevent handsets from working on competitors’ networks.
"While we are still reviewing the decision, it is clear that the order does not prevent carriers from locking handsets—it only removes a legal tool carriers have used to enjoin persons who unlock the handset without the carrier's consent," said Joe Farren, a spokesman for CTIA, the national cell-phone carrier association.
The copyright office declined to accept late-filed comments from CTIA and TracFone Wireless Inc., the nation’s largest independent prepaid cell phone company, in the rulemaking.
The mobile-phone industry has triumphed in antitrust lawsuits involving the locking of handsets.