Cell phone company sues over copyright rule change

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/16178104.htm

Cell phone company sues over copyright rule change


Associated Press


The country's largest provider of pay-as-you-go mobile services is suing the
federal government over a recent ruling that allows people to disable the
software that locks cell phones to a particular carrier.

Tracfone Wireless Inc. contends the new exemption to copyright law would
make it more difficult to crack down on people who disable the locks and
sell the phones at a profit overseas. The complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S.
District Court in Florida, seeks to force the U.S. Copyright Office to
eliminate the exemption it announced last month.

The practice of reselling phones drew the attention of state and federal
investigators earlier this year when arrests in Michigan and Ohio targeted
potential use of the phones by terrorists. But prosecutors dropped terrorism
charges quickly in both cases.

In most cases, federal law bars people from attempting to break electronic
mechanisms for enforcing copyrights. The Library of Congress allowed the
exemption at the urging of groups that say companies such as Tracfone are
stifling competition and hurting the environment because many of the phones
would otherwise be thrown away.

Miami-based Tracfone has fought a largely losing battle with brokers who buy
up its cheap phones at retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, disable the
phones' software and repackage them for sale overseas, particularly Latin
America and Hong Kong.

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