The White House Responds: Yes, You Should Be Able To Unlock Your Own Smartphone

The White House "agrees" that consumers should be legally allowed to make full use of their phones--but it's still against the law. Where do we go from here? A petition created by Sina Khanifar to make unlocking phones legal has garnered over 114,000 signatures on the White House's website--and the White House has finally responded. Before we get into that, here's what's going on. In 1998, the Clinton Administration passed the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, or DMCA, which was an attempt to cri...