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In reply to the discussion: The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone [View all]intheflow
(28,460 posts)2. Implications are far-reaching.
We won't own anything any more. Or, more to the point, this is planned obsolescence taken to its most extreme limits.
Here's example of how this could affect other areas of property ownership:
You buy a new Ford. The headlight goes out. The car's computer registers this and the software won't allow anything but another headlight from the Ford factory (or one that's contracted by Ford to be used with their computer software). So you'll be a slave to that brand, unable to buy generic replacement parts, so they can charge you top dollar.
I hope to hell this gets challenged and taken to court. It's pure BS, a decision made by a single person who no doubt has plenty of money to buy a new smart phone every week if he has to.
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The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone [View all]
xchrom
Jan 2013
OP
Does anyone remember the good ole' days when you didn't even own your own phone?
sadbear
Jan 2013
#1
The problem is, this includes that phones that do not have good deals on them
Horse with no Name
Jan 2013
#10
Maybe the difference today, though, is that a phone is not just a phone. It's a mini-computer.
randome
Jan 2013
#7
They do have the right to hold you to the contract. If you want out you pay an early termination
Ed Suspicious
Jan 2013
#22
you're right, but they probably don't know or care. both control issues...
farminator3000
Jan 2013
#44
This is only on those subsidized (cheap bundled in a contract) locked phones, though.
Lone_Star_Dem
Jan 2013
#29
You can still buy an unlocked phone, you just can't get the subsidy for it from the carrier
Recursion
Jan 2013
#32