It just got a little easier to swap cellphone providers. President Barack Obama signed a bill into law on Friday making it legal once again to unlock a cellphone without permission from your wireless provider, so long as the service contract has expired. The move undoes a copyright law prohibiting circumventing digital locks on technological devices. "Our laws should not prohibit consumers from carrying their cellphones to a new network, and we should promote and protect competition in the wireless marketplace," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee and co-sponsor of the bill.
The bill doesn't apply to other wireless devices such as tablets, but directs the Library of Congress, which oversees copyright law, to consider whether consumers should be allowed to unlock those as well.
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