It appears as though the White House feels that the recent ban on unlocking cell phones is not the right move, according to an official White House statement.
Petitions on the We The People website gained the 100,000 signatures needed for the Obama administration to respond to the question of whether or not customers have the legal right to unlock their phones and choose which service provider they use. Until the beginning of this year, users were able to unlock their phones, but a recent review of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has overturned this decision.
The White House's Director of International Cyber Security R. David Edelman released the following statement concerning this overruling:
"Contrary to the NTIA's (the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration) recommendation, the Librarian of Congress ruled that phones purchased after January of this year would no longer be exempted from the DMCA. The law gives the Librarian the authority to establish or eliminate exceptions -- and we respect that process. But it is also worth noting the statement the Library of Congress released today on the broader public policy concerns of the issue. Clearly the White House and Library of Congress agree that the DMCA exception process is a rigid and imperfect fit for this telecommunications issue, and we want to ensure this particular challenge for mobile competition is solved."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has expressed concerns about the recent ruling. Violators of the new law face a fine of half a million dollars and up to five years in jail. While unlocking cell phones has garnered support within the government, we do not know if the DMCA will be modified to allow this practice to restart. Time will tell if anything comes from this statement or not.