Unchain Your Devices With the Unlocking Technology Act

The Unlocking Technology Act provides an effective fix to a real problem in copyright: companies can exploit one-sided laws to prohibit users from modifying or repairing their devices by locking the technology with software.

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As a constituent, I write today to urge you to support the Unlocking Technology Act, H.R. 1892. This is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Thomas Massie, Anna Eshoo, and Jared Polis, that would address fundamental problems with overbroad copyright policy. A similar bill should be introduced in the Senate.

H.R. 1892 promises a real solution to the problem of phone unlocking -- a problem that lawmakers on the left and right have agreed flies in the face of common sense. What's more, the bill correctly identifies the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as the source of the issue and works to narrow the definitions in that law appropriately. The DMCA's vague definitions have ensnared security researchers, film makers, software developers, small businesses, and more; 15 years of unintended consequences has made a re-examination not just welcome but essential.

Please stand by the public interest and our right to use and improve the devices we legally own by supporting the Unlocking Technology Act.

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Please stand by the public interest and our right to use and improve the devices we legally own by supporting the Unlocking Technology Act.

That's a massive copyright overreach. And it casts a shadow of legal uncertainty over security researchers, tinkerers, hobbyists, remixers, and everyday users of all kinds of devices. These people are engaging in legitimate and non-infringing activities, but—because of the way the law is written now—the fact that they circumvent DRM to do so could cause problems.

DRM laws shouldn't let device makers bypass the fair use rights of their users. The Unlocking Technology Act takes a major step in the right direction with the common sense argument: if a use is fair, copyright law shouldn't stop it.

Please tell Congress now that you support this essential fix to a bad copyright law.