IN MY OPINION: UNLOCKING THE FUTURE OF REPAIR

摘要

In 2012, the Librarian of Congress (LoC) made a bad decision. James Hadley Billington ruled that consumers weren't allowed to unlock their own cellphones without their carriers' permission. Usually, the LoC's decisions don't make the headlines. After all, that office rules on intellectual property - a topic that doesn't exactly whip the general public into a fervor. But this time was different. When the LoC made cellphone unlocking illegal, he kicked off a nationwide debate about who controls the life (and the afterlife) of a cellphone - a debate that pitted manufacturers and carriers against consumers and recyclers. Most cellphones sold in the U.S. come digitally "locked" to one specific carrier, like AT&T or Verizon. If you have an AT&T phone, you have to keep using it on AT&T - even after you satisfy the terms of your contract. "Unlocking" lets the owner pick those digital locks, tweak the software and move that phone to another carrier. Devices are, not surprisingly, worth more without these locks, so most recyclers unlock phones for resale overseas. Or at least, they used to.