View Single Post
  #1 (permalink)  
Old 07-28-2010, 06:55 PM
SweetBearCub's Avatar
SweetBearCub
Regular 'Geeker
Offline
Location: San Francisco, CA
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 350
Reputation: 414
SweetBearCub is becoming a PPCGeeks regularSweetBearCub is becoming a PPCGeeks regularSweetBearCub is becoming a PPCGeeks regularSweetBearCub is becoming a PPCGeeks regularSweetBearCub is becoming a PPCGeeks regular
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Question Recent LoC DMCA Exemptions & How They Might Affect the Legality of ESN Changing.....?

Please note: This post is not a request for information on how to change my ESN. Per the site's rules, I'll save that for a more appropriate forum, depending on how this post gets answered. Also, please excuse my posting this question here. I could not find an appropriate forum. If there is one, please feel free to move this post there.

Greetings.

On 7/26/10, the Library of Congress passed a handful of new exemptions for the DMCA. One of them piqued my interest.

As I cannot find the exact legal text of the new DMCA exemptions, I'll quote from a recent PC World article, available HERE

The third sentence under the sub-heading "Phones" states "Users are also now able to unlock firmware that ties a mobile phone to a particular wireless network." I am aware that the ruling is more applicable to iPhone users, but nowhere in discussions of the exemptions did I see that they were specifically restricted to the iPhone.

I am vaguely aware of other federal laws that forbid the changing of ESNs, but am curious as to how that law would be reconciled with the new DMCA exemptions.

I would very much like to be able to change the ESN of a VZW Ozone to make it acceptable to run on Sprint's network, as in my opinion, the device has a better feature-set than the nearly equivalent Sprint Snap. It adds b/g WiFi, GSM capabilities, has a more usable keyboard, and I happen to like the color scheme more.
Reply With Quote