FCC to investigate ban on unlocking cell phones
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has raised concerns about the Librarian of Congress's controversial decision to stop allowing consumers to unlock their own cell phones in order to take them to competing carriers. In a Wednesday interview with Techcrunch, Julius Genachowski said that the "ban raises competition concerns; it raises innovation concerns."
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives the Librarian of Congress the power to grant exemptions to its "anti-circumvention" provisions. In its latest round of rulemaking, the Librarian cancelled an exemption for cell phone unlocking that had been in effect for the previous six years. As a result, unlocking a cell phone purchased after January 26 in order to move it to another wireless carrier could lead to civil and perhaps even criminal penalties.
The change sparked an online backlash. Last week, a petition on the White House website attracted the 100,000 signatures required for an official White House response. Now, according to Techcrunch, the FCC will investigate the change.
