Spectrum of Greed

Join the Rebellion!

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is trying to provide Americans with a freedom that is enjoyed in most other modern countries, but that we are denied here.  It is an outrageous accusation to suggest that the land of the free and the home of the brave might have fewer priviledges when it comes to cell phones than most of the civilized world, yet it is true.  Before you do anything else, go to Free Your Phone, EFF’s rebellion website, and cast a vote for wireless freedom!

Even if you are totally satisfied with the cell phone you have, wouldn’t you rather be able to pick the phone you want, then pick the carrier you want?  Currently, while some hackers are willing to go through the technical hoops necessary to unlock a phone so they can use it on a different market than it was sold for, they run another risk than just the destruction of an expensive wireless phone.  They also risk criminal prosecution under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, or DMCA.  The DMCA was originally created to protect publishers of CD’s and DVD’s from pirates, however this law is being used to prosecute cell phone liberators.  The EFF is now requesting that the Copyright Office grant an exemption to the DMCA that will protect phone users.

In case this still hasn’t convinced you that you should be involved, how about you read up from some independent sources that might just convince you that you are not as free as you feel.  Check out the links at the Free Your Phone learn page, particularly the 2007 study by Columbia Law School student Tim Wu called Wireless Carterfone, which points out the injustice of laws that allow us to put any device we want to on a land line, but no way, Jose on a wireless network!