Cell Phone Unlocking to Get a Reprieve Under Proposed Senate Bill

There was some brief rejoicing around Washington on March 11, when Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced legislation that would order the Librarian of Congress to reconsider the decision that makes it a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to unlock a cell phone without the permission of the carrier. Previously, the Librarian had exempted cell phone unlocking from the DMCA, but in January made a puzzling ruling that changed all that.

The new law, known by its short title, “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act” (S.517) which seems very likely to pass due to its bipartisan sponsorship and the probable introduction of similar bipartisan legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives in the near future, would order the LOC to reconsider the decision to eliminate the exemption for cell phone unlocking and to make a new decision within one year. Sen. Leahy, principal author of the DMCA, said in a statement that such a limitation wasn’t the intent of the law at all.