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The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (; ) is a United States public law that repeals a rulemaking determination by the United States Copyright Office that left it illegal for people to unlock their cellphones.〔 The bill passed in both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress. It was signed into law on August 1, 2014 by President Barack Obama. ==Background== In the United States and other areas, where carriers often offer deeply discounted cell phones in exchange for an exclusive agreement with a carrier, that phone will often be locked so it will not work with another carrier. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), it was illegal to use technical means to circumvent copyright protection systems. Therefore, consumers could not use software to circumvent the carrier lock on their cell phones (sometimes referred to as "hacking"). In 2010 the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) successfully convinced the United States Copyright Office to grant an exemption to the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA. However, exemptions to the DMCA are not permanent and must be reauthorized periodically by the Copyright Office. In a rulemaking determination effective October 28, 2012, the Copyright Office declined to extend the unlocking exemption for the next three-year period. As a result, only phones that were purchased before or within 90 days of the effective date could continue to be unlocked by users. Phones purchased more than 90 days past the effective date would again be subject to the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA and could not be legally unlocked without the carrier's permission.〔 In March 2013, the Obama administration and the Federal Communications Commission expressed the opinion that consumers should be able to switch carriers and keep their existing phones.〔(''F.C.C. Backs Consumers in Unlocking of Cellphones'' ) March 4, 2013 NYT〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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