Today, Public Knowledge joins Consumers Union and Center for Democracy & Technology in a letter urging the Global System Mobile Association (GSMA) to preserve consumers’ ownership and portability rights over their mobile devices.

Today, the FCC announced that the major wireless phone providers have met their commitment to unlocking consumers’ phones, allowing them to use their devices on competitors’ networks.

This afternoon, the House passed S. 517, the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, under unanimous consent. The bill allows consumers to “unlock” their cell phones so they can take a phone with them from one service provider to another. The bill already passed in the Senate, and will now make its way to the President’s desk for signing.

Earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), approved S 517, the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act. The bill allows consumers to “unlock” their cell phones so they can take a phone with them from one service provider to another.

Today, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) moved forward on new language for the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act. The updated version of the bill restores the exemption granted by the Copyright Office under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allowing customers to “unlock” their cell phones.

Today, Public Knowledge sent a letter to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees requesting an exemption in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that would allow people to unlock their cell phones. The letter, signed by a slew of organizations, academics, online communities, startup companies, and cell phone unlocking petition author Sina Khanifar, details that […]

Last Wednesday’s copyright hearing in the House IP Subcommittee may have borne the soporific title of “Chapter 12 of Title 17,” but the debate involved was lively. The titular Chapter 12 involves the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), the source of the crisis over phone unlocking.

This is the story of historic legislation getting passed through an extremely partisan and divided Congress.