Pre-paid cell phone company TracFone is arguing in court that allowing people to unlock their cell phones and use them with competing carriers will support terrorism.
At issue is a recent ruling from the U.S. Copyright Office and the Library of Congress that the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, enacted to combat piracy, can't be used to keep people from reprogramming cell phones they've legally purchased.
Stanford Law School cyberlaw attorney and Wired News columnist Jennifer Granick won the exemption, arguing that consumers and small businesses suffered in this misapplication of copyright law. TracFone lost, and filed a lawsuit (.pdf) yesterday in Florida against the Copyright Office and the Library of Congress.
The company says it was shut out of the proceedings, and makes the circular argument that changing the operating system on a phone you've bought and paid for is illegal under the DMCA, even though, of course, it isn't, and that's why they're suing.
Granick's column today has a rundown of how she won the exemption, and a balanced look at TracFone's position. Frankly, I think the first side to cry terrorism loses.
