Let My Nexus Go!

The White House has come down on the side of one form of e-freedom:

The legality of unlocking one’s cell phone to run on any network has flipped back and forth in the past several years. It was deemed illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act—then it was made legal by the Library of Congress in an exception to the DMCA passed in 2006. The Library chose not to renew the exemption in 2012, however, and it expired in January of this year. That inspired a petition to the White House, which a few weeks ago passed the 100,000 signature mark. The White House then promised to respond.

Today the White House posted its response to the petition. The administration opposes the Library of Congress’ position, and it called for legislation to make consumers’ freedom to unlock their phones crystal clear.

Seems like a no-brainer to me. A bolder move would have been to call the entire DMCA into question, because it is a giant vile ball of suck. But that would make Hollywood sad.