It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone .. 8A forbids cruel & unusual punishments

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It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone .. 8A forbids cruel & unusual punishments.



The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone


When did we decide that we wanted a law that could make jail-breaking your smartphone a criminal offense? The answer is that we never really decided.[/I]

Reuters​

This is now the law of the land:

ADVISORY

BY DECREE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS

IT SHALL HENCEFORCE BE ORDERED THAT AMERICANS SHALL NOT UNLOCK THEIR OWN SMARTPHONES.

PENALTY: In some situations, first time offenders may be fined up to $500,000, imprisoned for five years, or both. For repeat offenders, the maximum penalty increases to a fine of $1,000,000, imprisonment for up to ten years, or both.*​

That's right, starting this weekend it is illegal to unlock new phones to make them available on other carriers.
I have deep sympathy for any individual who happens to get jail time for this offense. I am sure that other offenders would not take kindly to smartphone un-lockers.
But seriously: It's embarrassing and unacceptable that we are at the mercy of prosecutorial and judicial discretion** to avoid the implementation of draconian laws that could implicate average Americans in a crime subject to up to a $500,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...now-a-crime-to-unlock-your-smartphone/272552/

 

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The Eighth Amendment requires that every punishment imposed by the government be commensurate with the offense committed by the defendant. Punishments that are disproportionately harsh will be overturned on appeal. Examples of punishments that have been overturned for being unreasonable are two Georgia statutes that prescribed the death penalty for rape and Kidnapping (Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 97 S. Ct. 2861, 53 L. Ed. 2d 982 [1977]; Eberheart v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 917, 97 S. Ct. 2994, 53 L. Ed. 2d 1104 [1977]).

In some situations, first time offenders may be fined up to $500,000, imprisoned for five years, or both. For repeat offenders, the maximum penalty increases to a fine of $1,000,000, imprisonment for up to ten years, or both.* for unlocking your smartphone ...

this law is unconstitutional and should be overturned!

 

[dowmace]

I'm going to be buying up all the used ATT and Tmobile phones I can afford and brute force unlocking them and selling them. F-you federal government.

 

[KOPBET]

Unlocking is not jailbreaking.

 

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picture the same thing happening, now that it's illegal to unlock smart phones. Actual Penalties prescribed by law are NO where near actual damages done. clearly violating the 8th Amendment as done to Aaron Schwartz below.

[video]http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139804n[/video]

 

[10Seconds]

Someone tell me how a "decree by the librarian of congress" can be a law. I mean if we are talking about dewey decimal then fine but...

 

[10Seconds]

Tony Leon*−And yet, people still don't see why the 2nd ammendment is there to protect you from tyrannical government. THIS IS A TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT!

The best response to that article. This guy gets it.