Unlocking Your Smartphone Will Be Illegal Starting Tomorrow

Are you a smartphone or tablet user? If so, have you unlocked your device or are you planning on it? If you’ve hesitated up to this point, you not wait any longer.

Why? Well, it seems the Librarian of Congress has determined that certain actions involving mobile phones are illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Basically, this means it will be illegal to jailbreak tablets and illegal to unlock phones without permission from your wireless provider. Good times.

This goes into effect on Januray 26th so if you still need to get this done, and you care about violating the law, you might want to hurry. Of course, you could always buy an iPhone from Verizon which is already unlocked, or a Nexus 4 (if you can find one), which is also unlocked, to avoid this problem.

Otherwise, you’re on your own. Good luck.