So who gave this Librarian so much power,anyway ?
In case you were wondering about the penalties for unlocking your new phone:
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In General. — Any person who violates section 1201 or 1202 willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain —
(1) shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, for the first offense; and
(2) shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both, for any subsequent offense.
(b) Limitation for Nonprofit Library, Archives, Educational Institution, or Public Broadcasting Entity. — Subsection (a) shall not apply to a nonprofit library, archives, educational institution, or public broadcasting entity (as defined under section 118(f)).
(c) Statute of Limitations. — No criminal proceeding shall be brought under this section unless such proceeding is commenced within five years after the cause of action arose.
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I propose a little bit of perspective
Apparently, an industry that can charge real money from 1.08 billion individual communication devices now needs legal protection from a librarian. Is this really justified?
If I could earn 1 cent from each of these phones tomorrow (one time), I would already bank 10,800,000 USD.
If I could charge each of those phones 1 cent/per second for 1 minute of communication per year I would bank 648,000,000 USD
If I could charge each of those phones for 1 hour of communication per year (at 1 ct/sec).
I would make 30,888,000,000 USD.
Yes, more than 30 BEELION dollars for 1 hour per year,
So how much do you think providers are actually charging the world's mobile consumer market? How much do you spend on mobile phone calls each day/month/year ? Do you think the providers might be losing out?
Anti-trust legislation and hanging need to come back into fashion. At the very least, legislative priorities need to be re-adjusted, real fast.