Unlocking your phone has now become illegal in the United States. Anyone who unlocked their handset in the U.S. without written consent from their carrier could face civil or even criminal charges. This means you can up to $2500 in fines if you unlock you handset simply for using on another carrier. Its even worse for those who unlock phones for profit, you could end up facing half a million dollars in fines and even imprisonment.This has happened since the U.S. Copyright Office no longer exempts cellphones under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This law was intended to prevent infringement of copyrights, and didn’t specifically aim at banning the unlocking of your new smartphone.
Currently there are nearly 2 million Apple iPhone users who have unlocked their device to use with T-Mobile’s Unlimited service. This move would definitely be a huge blow for T-Mobile which currently doesn’t sell the subsidized iPhone on their own network. Hopefully this may change this year.
However this law wont likely make a big impact to most users in the U.S. who are comfortable with getting their devices at subsidized prices on monthly payments for their service. Users who have already unlocked their devices will have nothing to worry about and it is somewhat unlikely that carriers will go after they own customers. But it is still recommended no to unlock any new handsets in future until this rule is changed.
The rule is expected to be looked at again in 2015, which is likely when it will have a chance of changing. Until then you will have to buy devices at their full retail unlocked price if you want to use them on a different network.
source – ABCNews | PhoneArena