Phone locks
Tracphone, a low-cost (read: cheap) cellphone provider, hasn't lost any time challenging the new Digital Millenium Copyright Act exemption allowing consumers to crack the firmware "locks" keeping users from switching providers.
This is an interesting case to watch because it's a harbinger of things to come. The cellphone industry, like the motion picture and music industries have been using bully encryption...crypto to protect their interests and then heavy-handed lobbying to create legislation stopping their victims (sorry, customers), from fighting back.
Wait for the crypto wars. They're coming in every content-driven vertical industry this decade and cases like this will set the legal stage.
Posted on December 07, 2006
