Guess what? If you are a citizen of the U.S. who loves to unlock mobile phones, then you're in for a bit of bad luck. Starting next week, unlocking phones in the U.S will be illegal, which means doing this could send you to prison.

Follow us

Beginning Jan. 26, folks in the U.S. will be barred from unlocking their mobile phone, so says the Library of Congress and the anti-hacking law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The new law doesn't only stop users from unlocking mobile phones, but tablets as well.

It's hard not to admit how much of a strange move this is. Why would unlocking a mobile phone and tablet be unlawful in the U.S. in 2013? It is safe to say the DMCA didn't make this move by itself - cellphone carriers played a huge role in setting this law into motion.

Unlocking a mobile phone allows the device to be used on more than one carrier, this is great for users who travel a lot internationally and would just rather have a single phone to take everywhere. This law makes doing that more complicated.

All is not lost though, there are still ways to unlock your phone without breaking the law. For example, if you are the owner of a copy of software that runs on a particular phone, then by all means it is ok to unlock your phone. If this is not the case, be damned and forever wonder which direction your right as a consumer has gone to.

Something you should note - unlocking is not the same as jailbreaking, so don't worry iPhone fans, you can continue to jailbreak for as long as possible, until the law finds a way to stop you in your tracks.

Join Our Conversation

Smartphones

LG to launch always-on, voice-controlled smartphone next year

BlackBerry Q10 arriving on AT&T on June 21

HTC unleashes Butterfly S: Price, specs, availability

Huawei wants to acquire Nokia, calls Windows Phone "weak"

Tablet / Laptop / PC

Microsoft Surface RT 2 to rock Qualcomm 800 chip, Windows 8.1

AT&T Galaxy Note 8.0 LTE costs $399.99 on contract, $199.99 with smartphone bundles

Chromebooks land on Walmart, more retailers to get it soon

Apple's next iPad mini 7.9 inch Retina display will be Samsung-made

Gadgets

Nintendo 3DS outsold Microsoft Xbox 360 in the U.S.

AMD moves from Intel's x86 platform to ARM for servers

OUYA team and E3 organizers battle over parking lot space

Sony PlayStation 4 to be available at $399 at the end of this year

OS / Software

PS3 latest software update 4.45 bricking the consoles

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update for Sony Xperia Z spotted in video

Windows Phone 8 GDR2 update reportedly coming in July

iOS 7 Beta comes with a bug that opens the lock screen to access photos [Video]

Internet / Social Media

Microsoft Socl adds meme generator and GIF creator

What to expect from Facebook's June 20 event

WWDC 2013: OS X 10.9 Mavericks Safari is going to help you extend battery life

Samsung Galaxy S3 browser bug spikes data usage, slows loading times

What's App

Microsoft paying app developers up to $100,000 to bring content to Windows Phone 8

Windows 8.1 brings newly updated Xbox Music app

Instagram may add video on June 20 to challenge Twitter's Vine

Microsoft Office now available for iPhones, but there's a catch