Legislation To legalize Unlocking of Cellphones

A recent white house response to a petition to legalize phone unlocking, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) has announced that she will introduce legislation to reverse the ban imposed in January.

Unlocking a phone allows it to be used on carriers other than the one from which it was purchased, and it was recently ruled that consumers may not unlock their phone without permission from that same carrier. Currently Sprint and AT&T allow unlocking of their phones after the end of your contracts. Some Verizon wireless smartphones come unlocked.

In October 2012, the Librarian of Congress, who determines exemptions to a strict anti-hacking law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), decided that unlocking mobile phones would be illegal.

The obvious benefit of unlocking your phone is that you could buy any phone you want without being bound by long standing contracts as well as easier use during international travel.

Unlocked/unlocking phones are common practice in Europe and the Middle East; hopefully the U.S. can catch up to the times.

 

Fox News attack on Common

So Fox News recent attack on the rapper Common’s 2007 performance on “Russell Simmons Presents: Def Poetry Jam” due to his invitation to the White House for a poetry reading for kids is just another case in how todays major news organizations aren’t really that organized. They receive information and don’t fact check it with the whole body of work, most recent body of work, and most importantly. Take time out to semi-understand it before they speak on it. Case in point, they call Common’s music misogynistic, gangster rap, and con-traversal. That seems to be a word that is thrown around a lot lately. For people who are fans of Common, wether it be his music or movie roles have to laugh at the attack because it just shows that those who speak about him as if he is a bad person just don’t have a clue. His poem on Def Poetry is not a highly memorable event to the average Common fan like myself. Especially when you take into consideration his classic albums like Resurrection, Be, and Finding Forever. And even more so because Def Poetry has been off the air for years and was more so a platform for unknown artist more so than the familiar ones.

Fox news found some old ass video of Common performing at Obama’s old church connecting him to the now infamous Pastor Jeremiah Wright  and the Def Poetry piece and labeled him something that he is clearly not.

John Stewart’s Take on the story: http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhswCH5Ee87YLo1xte